Family reunions are back on with Aussies heading overseas in huge numbers as people learn to live with COVID-19
Almost one million people flew out of Australia during July and it was a 1000 per cent increase on the same month last year, when many parts of the country were in COVID lockdown.
The provisional data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed there were 972,590 international departures in July 2022, compared to just 87,020 in July 2021.
Data for June 2022 shows there were 880,860 overseas departures.
The number of overseas departures has been climbing steadily since February this year.
Business is booming for Ballarat travel agent Sandi Jackson, who said visiting family overseas is a major reason behind people booking international trips.
"People are going to Europe to visit family and Bali is popular," she said.
Europe and Canada are popular destinations for clients in the Illawarra, Travelscene on Crown's Jonathan Hickman said.
The Wollongong travel agent said cruising is also back on the agenda for many people.
"We're finding people are booking higher quality cabins just in case [of a COVID outbreak]. Instead of an inside one they're now booking one with a balcony," he said.
Mr Hickman said COVID-19 remains a concern for those heading overseas.
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"They're just taking precautions with facemasks in public and using sanitiser," he said.
The ABS report also showed there were 1.08 million overseas arrivals into Australia during July this year.
While the July data is provisional, it represents a 48 per cent increase on the 730,400 arrivals during June.
During June 2022, New Zealand was the largest source country, and accounted for 21 per cent (57,200 trips) of all international visitor arrivals. This was followed by Singapore (37,040 trips) and India (28,570).
While international students are returning to Australia, the number of arrivals in June 2022 was 36 per cent lower than the pre-COVID levels in June 2019.
In June 2022 there were 29,480 international student arrivals to Australia, an increase of 29,010 students compared with the corresponding month of the previous year.