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<docID>326765</docID>
<postdate>2024-08-15 14:37:53</postdate>
<headline>Tourist numbers back to pre-pandemic levels</headline>
<body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-326767" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20180525001347151459-original-resized-1.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="614" /></p>
<caption>Australians who returned from trips between 2023 and 2024 was 32 per cent higher than a year before. (David Moir/AAP PHOTOS)</caption>
<p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Kat Wong</strong> in Canberra</span></p>
<p><strong>Australians have swapped the COVID-19 virus for the travel bug as jet-setting returns to pre-pandemic levels.</strong></p>
<p>The number of Australians who have returned from trips between 2023 and 2024 was 32 per cent higher than the year before, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.</p>
<p>And in January 2024, these numbers bounced back to pre-pandemic levels for the first time since international travel restrictions lifted.</p>
<p>Every month since â€“ except May â€“ the number of returned Australian travellers has been higher than 2019 levels.</p>
<p>However, the number of overseas tourists arriving in Australia has not yet rebounded, reaching just 85 per cent of pre-pandemic volumes.</p>
<p>Chinese tourist levels have made a significant reappearance and are now the second largest source of short-term visitor arrivals behind travellers from NZ.</p>
<p>Australians' top travel destination between in 2023-24 was Indonesia, with 1.5 million trips made to the southeast Asian nation.</p>
<p>The flight across the ditch remained the second-most common travel destination with 1.3 million trips made to NZ that year.</p>
<p>But the surge in Australians travelling to Indonesia outpaced the increase in visits across the Tasman four to one.</p>
<p>Other nations most visited by Australians include the US, the UK and Japan.</p>
<p>The US was the only nation in Australia's top five destinations where trips were lower than a decade ago with just 710,000 trips made compared to 970,000 between 2013 and 2014.</p>
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