More Australians appear to be taking overseas holidays than ever before. This report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Australian residents made a record 6.8 million short-term trips overseas in 2009-10. This is up from 5.8 million movements in 2008-09, and more than double the movements ten years ago. The most popular destination for Australian residents going overseas on short-term trips were: New Zealand (over 1 Million movements) Indonesia (650,000 movements) USA (630,000) UK (460,000) Thailand (430,000) These top five destinations alone, accounted for just under half of all short-term resident departures for the year. Reasons given for these travel movements were: 55% Holiday 24% Visiting friends and relatives 11% Business The average time overseas was 15 days. The movement rate (number of international movements per 1,000 state or territory population) for short-term resident departures varied considerably across the states and territories. In 2009-10, The difference between the States was very marked: 434 per 1,000 Western Australia 429 per 1,000 Australian Capital Territory 331 per 1,000 New South Wales 150 per 1,000 Tasmania Source: ABS http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/3401.0 |