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Market Pulse
Australia’s Visitor Numbers Hold Flat in August
Short-term visitor arrivals were 755,530 in August, up 0.3% on a year earlier. New Zealand and China led, and Australians' short trips abroad rose 1.5%.
Photograph · MDRX / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Australia’s inbound tourism held steady in August. The Australian Bureau of Statistics counted 755,530 short-term visitor arrivals, up 0.3% (2,210 people) on August 2025. In July, arrivals had fallen 4.3%.
Australians travelled a little more: short-term resident returns were 986,250, up 1.5%.
Top 10 source markets, August 2026
| Market | Visitor arrivals |
|---|---|
| New Zealand | 110,210 |
| China | 106,990 |
| Japan | 62,600 |
| United States | 50,650 |
| Singapore | 42,910 |
| United Kingdom | 38,280 |
| India | 33,650 |
| South Korea | 30,990 |
| Malaysia | 26,470 |
| Hong Kong | 26,430 |
For advisors and operators
- Flat is better than July’s fall, but inbound isn’t growing. Expect operators to keep offering trade incentives.
- Japan is a solid third. Japanese school and ski seasons matter for winter bookings.
- Outbound is growing, if slowly. Australians are still travelling abroad, and that’s where the agency revenue is.