Tag Archives: best places to travel

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).

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But for the first time in eight years, the Island of the Gods has been dethroned in what has been dubbed a “significant shift” in Aussie vacationers’ behavior.

To who? Japan.

New data from Expedia found Tokyo has knocked Bali out of the top spot for international travel over summer.

Coming in third is Singapore, followed by Osaka and Kyoto, then New York.

Some have argued Japan’s rising popularity could be due to many Aussies seeking snow being forced to rule out more expensive winter sport destinations, such as Europe and the US.

It has also been suggested, however, that Bali’s recent crackdown on antisocial tourist behavior could tarnish its laid-back reputation.

Expedia brands managing director Daniel Finch said while Bali is normally “neck and neck” with Hawaii and Fiji as top travel destinations this time of year, the cost of living pressures at home were causing Aussies to shake up their holiday plans.

“It’s really quite interesting as there has been a shift this year with people looking for a cultural as well as a weather change,” he

The US Department of State has issued an important travel advisory for a popular travel destination.

The advisory, posted on Friday, warns travelers to “exercise increased caution” when traveling to The Bahamas due to crime. The alert is a Level 2 indicating the presence of widespread violent or organized crime with limited ability by law enforcement to respond.

The state department “rates the criminal threat level in New Providence Island (includes Nassau and Paradise Island) as critical. The vast majority of crimes occur on New Providence (Nassau) and Grand Bahama (Freeport) Islands. Criminal activity on the outlying Family Islands does occur, but to a much lesser degree than on New Providence or Grand Bahama,” the alert noted.

In tourist hot-spot Nassau, people were urged to exercise caution in the “Over the Hill” area south of Shirley Street due to violent crimes such as armed robberies and sexual assaults.

The alert came after the US Embassy in The Bahamas posted an alert urging citizens to be aware that “18 murders have occurred in Nassau since the beginning of 2024,” USA Today reported. The murders have occurred in broad daylight and are believed to be motivated by retaliatory gang violence.

The embassy

New Zealand has consistently been the most popular destination since the ABS started recording tourism data nearly 50 years ago, with Indonesia overtaking the US as the runner-up since early 2014.

New Zealand’s post-COVID growth has been hurt by major airlines shrinking their fleets during the pandemic, according to Australian Travel Industry Association chief executive Dean Long.