Australians have swapped the COVID-19 virus for the travel bug as jet-setting returns to pre-pandemic levels.

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.

And in January 2024, these numbers bounced back to pre-pandemic levels for the first time since international travel restrictions lifted.

Every month since – except May – the number of returned Australian travellers has been higher than 2019 levels.

However, the number of overseas tourists arriving in Australia has not yet rebounded, reaching just 85 per cent of pre-pandemic volumes.

Chinese tourist levels have made a significant reappearance and are now the second largest source of short-term visitor arrivals behind travellers from New Zealand.

Australians’ top travel destination between in 2023-24 was Indonesia, with 1.5 million trips made to the southeast Asian nation.

The flight across the ditch remained the second-most common travel destination with 1.3 million trips made to New Zealand that year.

But the surge in Australians travelling to Indonesia outpaced the increase in visits across the Tasman four to one.

Other nations most visited by Australians include the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan.

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.