International travel is on the rise, with provisional data for April 2022 showing 1.2 million international border crossings to and from Australia, according to data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The increase, up from 710,000 border crossings in March 2022, represented a large change from a year ago when there were only 118,000 movements. However, this was still only a third (34 per cent) of the pre-COVID travel seen in April 2019, when there were 3.5 million border crossings.
ABS Director of Migration Statistics, Jenny Dobak, said: “With international borders re-opening in February and the Easter long weekend and school holidays in April, we have seen an increase in arrivals and departures.
“There were 580,000 overseas arrivals and 610,000 overseas departures in April 2022, the largest number of travellers since the start of the pandemic.”
On 21 February 2022, remaining travel restrictions were removed and the Australian border opened to tourists and other international travellers. Detailed data available for March 2022 shows 162,000 visitors arriving in Australia for a short-term trip. The majority (63 per cent) indicated their main reason for travel was visiting friends or family.
The largest source country for short-term visitors arriving in March were from the UK (27,000), followed by New Zealand (19,000) and India (15,000).
The states with the highest number of visitors arriving for a short-term trip were New South Wales (59,000) and Victoria (45,000).
