International travel by Australians

IBISWorld forecasts international travel by Australians to dip by 3.5% in 2025-26, to 12.30 million departures. By the first half of 2025-26, Australia's international travel had already surpassed pre-pandemic levels, driven by the return of flight capacity, heightened pent-up demand and pandemic-era savings. Since 2022-23, high labour force participation and a strong propensity to travel have supported outbound demand, even though discretionary incomes remain below 2020-21 levels and real wages have trailed inflation over the past five years. This has been aided by government policy initiatives, like improved digital visa processing infrastructure, streamlined entry agreements with countries like China and service expansion from low-cost airlines. Despite these positive factors, the recent onset of the conflict between the United States and Iran is expected to dampen international departure growth for the latter half of 2025-26, as major global flight routes through the United Arab Emirates and Qatar face suspensions or reduced operations.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, international travel by Australians was surging. Typically, nearly 60% of outbound trips were for holiday purposes and just over one-quarter of trips abroad are to visit friends and family. Rising competition on international routes and a greater frequency of flights were also supporting outbound travel before the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the two years to 2018-19, low-cost carriers increased their capacity into Australia as travellers looked for more affordable fares to traditionally expensive destinations like the United States and Europe .

International departures plummeted over the two years through 2020-21, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In monthly terms, international departures by Australians reached a low of 8,070 in August 2020, during Victoria's second wave of the pandemic. Seven months earlier, in January 2020, overseas trips by Australians totalled approximately 1.4 million. Most of the Federal Government's heavy restrictions on outbound travel, which were implemented in March 2020, remained in effect during 2020-21 and much of 2021-22. However, the implementation of a trans-Tasman travel bubble during the June 2021 quarter resulted in a slight increase in international departures in late 2020-21. Australia's international border restrictions eased substantially in 2021-22, beginning with the removal of quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travellers entering and leaving the country. Overall, due to a low base year in 2020-21, IBISWorld forecasts international travel by Australians to have risen at a compound annual rate of 123.6% over the five years through 2025-26.