Australia records highest number of short term visitors in 2018-19

Australia has recorded the highest number of short-term visitors in a year ever.

Source: AAP

In 2018-19, there were 9.3 million short-term visitor arrivals to Australia from overseas, the highest year on record, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed on Wednesday.

The record annual 9.3 million visitors in 2018-19 was 3.8 million more than 10 years earlier and 272,300 more than 1 year ago, While Australia experienced strong increases during 2016 and 2017.

China was the largest source country with over 1.43 million visitors nationally with New Zealand (1.41 million) in second place. South Korea was the 10^th source country with 281 million.

This reflects strong growth in the number of Chinese visitors over the decade, with a 303% increase since 2008-09. However, this growth has slowed more recently.

Short-term visitor arrivals, Australia — Top 10 source countries(a) — 2018-19 — year ending (ABS) Source: ABS

In 2018-19, more short-term visitors intended to stay in NSW(37%) and VIC(26%). China was the leading source country for NSW, VIC, SA, TAS and the ACT while New Zealand provided the most visitors for QLD.

There were more visits to Australia by women than men (4.9 million women compared with 4.5 million men).

The main reason for travel was holiday with 47%. (Visiting friends and relatives 30% and business 7.3%)

During 2018-19, the median duration of stay in Australia was 11 days, it was longer in SA (17 days) and shorter in Qld (10 days).