Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show 10,640 incoming passengers to Australia marked “visitor” on their entry card in December 2020.
This included 2,480 Australian citizens returning Australians that month.
So, nearly a third of the 35,000 international travellers were visitors rather than returning residents.
The three leading source countries where visitors came from were: New Zealand (2,520 trips), The USA (1,000), and The UK (880).
ABS’ other key findings for visitor arrivals to Australia include:
- This was a decrease of 99.2% when compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.
- New Zealand was the largest source country, accounting for 29% of all visitor arrivals.
Based on the number registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), about 39,000 Australians are stranded overseas during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Out of these around 5000 are considered vulnerable.
A federal government spokesperson told media:
“The government prioritises facilitated flights where the need is the greatest based on registrations of Australians in vulnerable situations and the availability of commercial flight options.”
DFAT had helped over 41,000 Australians return since March 2020.
This number includes more than 15,000 people on 109 government-facilitated flights.
There were also 2,890 arrivals, people moving to Australia for the first time as new migrants with permanent visas.
Arriving travellers paid $3,000 for one adult aged over 18 in hotel quarantine, and then $1,000 for each extra adults, plus $500 for children.
