Chart of the Week #3: Where are Australians traveling?
The US's loss is Japan's gain!
This week’s “chart of the week” explores some travel trends that we’ve been following in recent months. Firstly, the significant decline in demand for Australians traveling to the United States, and secondly the consistent increase in demand for Australians traveling to Japan.
We’ve described the trends to the United States driven extensively by the strength of the US Dollar and countervailing weakness of the Australian Dollar. If Australians are not traveling to the United States then where are they traveling? One destination experiencing significant increases in demand for travel by Australians is Japan!
Using the most recent ABS data on “short-term residents returning” up to May 2024, travel to the United States is 32% lower than February 2020. This amounts to a decline of 27,897 travellers per month!
Meanwhile, not only has travel by Australian residents to Japan recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic travel disruptions, they have increased! Travel to Japan has increased by 29% since February 2020, amounting to an increase of 12,756 travellers per month. Not all of the US’s loss has been Japan’s gain, but nearly half!
Japan is just about to overtake the United States as a destination for Australian travellers! The difference is just 2,557 travellers per month!
So what is driving this change? While the Australian Dollar has weakened significantly against the US dollar over the last few years, the Japanese Yen has been even weaker! The Australian Dollar is buying 40% more Yen than it was at the start of the end of 2019 and start of 2020. Japan is offering Australian travellers exceptional value while the US is just a little too expensive right now!
And just in case you missed last week’s “chart of the week” you can find it here:
