Short overseas trips have doubled
THE number of Australians making short-term trips overseas has more than doubled in the past decade.
Australians made a record 8 million short-term trips - a stay of less than a year - overseas in 2011-12, figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed.
This was up from 7.4 millions trips the previous financial year.
Just five nations accounted for almost half of all short-term overseas trips for the year.
The most popular destination was New Zealand, with more than 1.1 million trips across the ditch in the past financial year.
Indonesia (911,000 movements) was next, followed by the United States (819,000), Thailand (600,000) and the United Kingdom (487,000).
Taking a holiday (57%) was cited as the most common reason for short-term overseas journeys, with other common reasons being visiting friends and relatives (23%) and business (10%).
Six million short-term visitor arrivals were recorded in 2011-12 - the highest on record - although this number has remained stable in recent years.
