After 50 years as Australia’s most popular travel destination, New Zealand has been overtaken by Indonesia.

Around 1.37 million Australians will travel to Indonesia in 2023, while 1.26 million will travel to New Zealand.

For Australians traveling to Indonesia, 86% went for a holiday and 7% to visit friends or relatives. In New Zealand, 43% went for a holiday and 38% to visit friends or relatives.

New Zealand has been Australia’s most popular tourism destination since the ABS started collecting records, peaking at 1.46 million visitors in 2019.

Australian Bureau of Statistics head of migration statistics Jenny Dobak said short-term returns were still recovering from COVID.

“We can also see that short-term resident returns are recovering faster than short-term visitor arrivals,” he said.

“This shows that there are more Australians going overseas for a short-term trip than international visitors coming to Australia.”

Australia had just over 7 million international visitors arriving for a short-term trip in 2023, down from 9.5 million in 2019.

New Zealanders remain the most prolific visitors to Australia, sending 1.27 million visitors to Australia in 2023, followed by the US (0.66 million) the UK (0.60 million), China (0.54 million) and India (0.4 million).

A spokesperson from Tourism New Zealand said New Zealand remains a popular destination for Australian tourists.

“Tourism New Zealand research shows Australian visitors are interested in our adventure tourism, geothermal attractions, our culture and food and wine offerings — experiences we know we can deliver on,” she said.

“Australia is a very important market for Aotearoa New Zealand. It is our largest visitor market, making up 38% of all holiday arrivals last year.

“We’ll continue to work hard to grow desire for a holiday in Aotearoa New Zealand in the Australian market.”

Provisional data from January 2024 shows 2.12 million arrivals, suggesting the COVID recovery is continuing.

International student numbers appear to have almost fully recovered this year, with December 2023 arrivals 7.7% higher than December 2019.

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