Chart of the Week #1: Where are Australians traveling to?

And how has this changed over the last decade and a half?

We wanted to show how the travel to/from Australia has evolved in the last while, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a series of posts over the coming weeks, we’ll explore some interesting data visualisations to highlight changing trends. Some of the questions we’re looking to answer include the evolving travel patterns of Australians? Where are visitors to Australia coming from? How are airline capacity and passengers flows evolving?

In this post we look at where Australian residents are traveling! This includes all people normally resident in Australia, including citizens, permanent residents, and long-term visa holders. The animation show a 12 month rolling total from June 2008 until March 2024, using the full public dataset from ABS. The animation includes the top 20 destinations in each month, but the totals cover all travel!

What do you notice? What’s interesting to you? Incredible growth to China, India and Japan, however China’s post-COVID recovery struggling alongside the United States. Indonesia has grown, not only outstripping Thailand as the biggest destination in Southeast Asia, but overtaking New Zealand even!

Race animation made with Flourish.