Australian travellers giving the US a miss in favour of China, India and Japan, ABS data shows

Latest travel figures show just how far America has slumped on the list of destinations Australians book for international trips.

The US has fallen further out of favour with Australian travellers, slumping to number eight in the list of our most visited overseas destinations in February.

Bureau of Statistics data recorded the extraordinary drop in travel to the US, which prior to Covid, was one of Australia’s top three favourite international destinations.

February data showed New Zealand at number one followed by Indonesia, Japan, India and China, all of which have recovered to pre-Covid levels of Australian visitors.

In contrast, the US is at 70 per cent of 2019 figures in a result tourism industry leaders have attributed to the “chaos” of the Trump administration, the poor exchange rate and the increasing cost of an American holiday.

Foreign currency retailer Travelex revealed year-on-year the USD was tracking down more significantly than any other currency.

“It’s down year-to-date and even more so month-to-date, especially compared to others like the euro,” said Travelex spokesman Robert Dempsey.

“This appears to be driven by a mix of recent sentiment shifts, exchange rate movements and some recent events.”

Tourism lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney David Beirman said the US was not only now seen as a very expensive destination, there was a perception the country did not want to work harmoniously with the rest of the world.

“That perspective and perception has resulted in people thinking twice about whether they want to travel to the States,” said Dr Beirman.

“Perception is such an important part of tourism, and right now attitudes towards the US are very negative.”

The US fell to number eight in the list of our most visited overseas destinations in February.

Don’t Forget Travel Group director Andrew Sullivan said the US had not recovered as an Australian travel destination since the pandemic, and recent events were likely to do more damage.

He said since the start of the year, he had been asked to book just one trip to the US mainland, and it was for someone looking to combine a business trip with leisure.

“Even when the dollar was quite low in the past, people were still going and perhaps just not doing as much as they might,” said Mr Sullivan.

“The difference back then was also that flights were a lot cheaper, so now you’ve got more expensive flights, a poor exchange rate and now we’re hearing there’s an expectation you should be tipping 25 to 30 per cent.”

Dr Beirman said it was not only Australians giving the US a miss, with the country’s biggest tourist market, Canada, also actively avoiding their neighbour.

“Canada has always been a big customer and now Canadians are pretty upset with America and saying they will go anywhere but the US,” he said.

“The same thing with Europe too. It shows obviously politics does interfere with people’s attitude towards destinations.”

It’s not only Australians who are avoiding the US due to the perception of hostility towards other countries. Picture: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The February travel data was the first to map out demand for the US in the wake of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, and in the first full month of Donald Trump’s second term as President.

Australian Travel Industry Association chief executive Dean Long said the natural disaster would have had more impact on this dataset than the Trump administration but an “extended downturn” in travel to the US was likely.

“The US is unfortunately going to have some structural issues and I think with the fall of the dollar, that’s going to have a bigger impact on forward sales now, probably for the remainder of the year,” said Mr Long.

In a win for Australia, the statistics showed more Americans are now travelling down under than vice versa — with the country our third biggest source of overseas visitors behind China and New Zealand.

Airline capacity between the US and Australia remained strong, with four carriers servicing trans-Pacific routes directly, and United Airlines planning to add Adelaide to its network by the end of the year.

Mr Sullivan, who is Adelaide-based, suggested United would be hoping demand for US travel increased before then.

“I hope it works but it’s only seasonal (December to March) at this stage, and to be quite honest most Australians travel during our winter now because they want to get away from our weather, so I think they’re missing out on a major portion of this market,” he said.

“I think in July people would happily jump on a flight to San Francisco but perhaps not so much in December or January.”

Originally published as Australian travellers giving the US a miss in favour of China, India and Japan, ABS data shows