Departures Double Over Arrivals
Overseas trips taken by Aussies have outstripped international arrivals by more than 1.5 million.
Australians took 7.44 million overseas trips, a 9.9 per cent increase on 2009-10 and 1.5m more than the 5.91 million international visitors to Australia. The travel boom hit a peak in June when, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show, the 727,100 departures were almost double the 390,100 arrivals. That equated to one in 30 Australians heading overseas during the month.
Only those destinations affected by natural disasters — New Zealand and Japan — saw a fall in Australian visitors. “It’s about bars, beaches and boutiques, with the numbers of Aussies going to Indonesia up by 153,00, the US up 116,00 and Thailand up 54,000 in just 12 months,” Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive John Lee said.
CommSec chief economist Craig James said Australia had never before seen such an imbalance in tourism numbers.
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