Visitor boom
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has revised its methodology for recording Overseas Arrivals & Departures back to 2007, due to the removal of the outgoing passenger card.
I'll provide the full deep-dive review into the new figures in my subscription reports for accredited and institutional investors.
The number of net permanent and long term arrivals into Australia has picked up moderately from a recent lull.
But the more important thing to note is the change in composition of arrivals into Australia.
In trend terms there were 745,400 short term arrivals in the month of July 2017, an increase of +7.1 per cent from a year ago, and continuing the increase in visitors since the peak of the resources construction boom and the depreciation of the Aussie dollar.
Following a streamlining of the visa category, the number of education arrivals is really going like the clappers, particularly from China.
There will be some circular trips in these data, but the statistics show that July was the biggest month ahead of a spring session on record, with education arrivals up +55 per cent from three years ago.
This has some significant implications for apartment rentals in inner Melbourne and Sydney.
And Chinese visitors aren't just coming for education, but for holidays, business and conferences, and to visit family, in unprecedented numbers.
In seasonally adjusted terms, July 2017 was the biggest month on record for Chinese arrivals.
In original terms there were nearly 150,000 Chinese arrivals (there have been more visitors to Australia for Chinese New Year on a handful of occasions).
For a more in-depth look at Australia's changing demographics and the implications thereof, subscribe for my monthly reports.
