New Zealand knocked off top of Australians’ travel plans

For the first time since the pandemic struck, New Zealand has been knocked off the top of Australians’ travel lists. What’s the new number one?

Indonesia has leapfrogged New Zealand to become Australians’ favourite overseas travel destination for the first time since borders reopened in February 2022.

Bureau of Statistics data showed 107,810 Australians returned from a short-term visit to Indonesia in May, compared to 72,990 from New Zealand.

The majority of the travellers to Indonesia were believed to be coming home from a Bali holiday, with numbers already back to 94.5 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels.

Other destinations attracting hordes of Australian holiday-makers included Fiji – which was seeing even bigger crowds than in 2019, along with India and Singapore.

Travellers to the US remained well down on pre-pandemic levels, while the UK, Thailand and Japan continued to see steady growth.

Author of Tourism Crises and Destination Recovery David Beirman said the popularity of Bali and Fiji was no surprise, given their proximity and value for money.

“One of the trends we’ve seen globally post-pandemic is that travellers tend to be travelling to places that are fairly close to them,” Dr Beirman said.

“It’s a little bit surprising that more Australians are travelling to Indonesia than New Zealand, but it was always pretty close between those two destinations, and the warmth of Bali is probably more attractive at this time of year than the cold of New Zealand.”

Fiji is now seeing more Australian visitors than pre-pandemic. Picture: Fiji Airways

Dr Beirman said value-wise, Bali and Fiji as well as Thailand, were sitting very close to what they were in 2019, whereas other places including New Zealand were now more expensive.

“It’s cheaper to go to Bali than some of our own tropical destinations such as Cairns and the Whitsundays,” he said.

“There’s also a few different airlines flying direct from Australia to Bali, which has made airfares more competitive than those to Europe and the US.”

Recent “crackdowns” by the Indonesian government on bad behaviour by tourists such as indecent attire and public drunkenness were clearly no deterrent, he added.

Dr Beirman said the enforcement of higher standards of dress and behaviour probably only made Bali more attractive to families.

“The fact of the matter is the overwhelming majority of Australians who go to Bali are normal, respectable people who just want to relax, enjoy themselves and get reasonably good value for money,” he said.

“That’s the same thing for Fiji and for families it’s beaut because the kids get looked after and parents can do what they life. Fijian and Balinese resorts tend to be very good at looking after children. New Zealand is a fantastic destination, but it doesn’t have that reputation.”

Heading in the other direction, international visitors to Australia were now at 76.6 per cent of 2019 figures, with New Zealanders accounting for almost one in five short term arrivals.

Americans were next, closely followed by visitors from India, then Singapore and China.

In fact there was little growth in visitors from China from April to May, from 32,000 to 32,210 despite an increase in airline capacity.

Prior to the Covid pandemic, Chinese visitors were Australia’s top inbound travel market, after eclipsing New Zealand in 2018.

Tourism industry leaders recently visited China in the hope of reigniting the country’s love affair with Australia, with the help of the $125m “Come and Say G’Day” campaign.