Popularity for Asian destinations have grown among Australian traveller’s according to the new figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Indonesia, China, Thailand, India, and Japan were a few of the most popular destinations with the highest growth since March 2017.
According to ABS, these countries were not only the most popular in 2018, but saw a continual growth in Australia.
“Indonesia has long been a favourite destination for Australians, and more than 90,000 of us returned from short term trips to Indonesia in March,” ABS Director of Migration Statistics, Myles Burleigh said.
However, even though Indonesia showed one of the highest numbers of travellers, there was no change in the growth.
“A number of other Asian countries are rapidly catching up,” Mr Burleigh said.
China reflected this trend as 47,000 of Australian travellers chose China, which was a five per cent rise from March 2017.
Japan saw the highest growth with 14 per cent, and India and Vietnam followed with both up around 11 per cent.
Thailand also saw a three per cent rise, with 42,700 travellers in total.
However, among the Asian countries, Singapore saw a decline with a six per cent decrease from last year. This still accounted for 34,200 Australian travellers.
For the non-Asian countries, New Zealand was the most popular destination overall with 130,000 travellers. However, this was a three per cent decline from 2017.
The United States also saw a two per cent decline, with 62,300 travellers.
The United Kingdom was the only non-Asian country that saw a growth of three per cent, with 23,800 travellers.