International travel has rebounded to pre-COVID levels for the first time since international travel restrictions were lifted, according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The numbers also showed Indonesia was the most popular travel destination for Australians with 1.5 million trips recorded in 2023-24, outpacing the increase in trips to New Zealand by “four to one”.

International flights resumed in late 2021, with searches for flights and travel insurance still soaring in early 2023.

Last year marked the first time Indonesia had come in as the top travel destination.

In June 2024 it was followed in popularity by New Zealand (77,760 trips),  the United Kingdom (65,090 trips) the United States (52,910) and Japan (51,156).

The United States was the only country in the top five where the number of trips proved lower than a decade ago, with a total of 714,300 trips, down from 970,230 trips in 2013-14.

The ABS’ head of migration statistics, Martin Skeggs, said it had been a “continual recovery” over several years.

“The figures today [are not] especially surprising because we’ve been seeing this coming, but they have reached a point now where for residents, we’re hitting levels that we saw prior to the pandemic,” he said. 

“We’re already seeing visitors from some countries levelling off a little bit.

“But if we look prior to the pandemic, we saw that the number of Australians going overseas and the number of visitors coming here was ever increasing.

“So there is the possibility that those levels may continue to increase over time.” 

There were 863,950 short term trips in June 2024, “an increase of 134,410 compared to [June 2023]”, according to the ABS.

The number of trips was 2.6 per cent higher than the pre-COVID figure in June 2019.

The ABS’ head of migration statistics, Jenny Dobak, said: “The number of residents returning from short-term trips in 2023-24 was 32 per cent higher than 2022-23, and reached 98 per cent (pre-COVID) volume.

“The number of resident returns each month reached 100 per cent of the pre-COVID (2019) volume in January 2024, for the first time since international travel restrictions were lifted.

Most visitors from New Zealand, China, India

The number of short-term visitors to Australia in June 2024 increased by 8.4 per cent on the previous year, with 587,760 arrivals.

The number of arrivals has reached 85 per cent of the pre-COVID 2018-19 level and increased in all states and territories over the year.

Ms Dobak said China had “made a notable movement in the top five countries that short-term visitors arrived from, becoming the second-most popular country for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic”.

The majority of short-term visitors in June 2024 were from New Zealand (103,850), followed by China (55,670), the United States (52,460), Singapore (50,610) and India (39,550).

Most visitors were travelling to New South Wales and Victoria.

However, the number of international students arriving in June 2024 decreased by 11,390 students compared to the previous year, with 39, 230 arriving.

This was also 14.8 per cent lower than pre-COVID levels (June 2019).

Mr Skeggs said it had been difficult to predict how long it would take for travel numbers to recover following COVID-19 restrictions. 

“It’s difficult to say at the best of times,” he said.

“It’s not unexpected that it took some time for the industry to recover. 

“It was very, very uncertain as to what would happen a couple of years ago when the borders reopened, in terms of how long it would take.”