According to the Australian Travel Industry Association (ATIA), Aussies are turning away from the U.S. and redirecting travel spend to Asia.
The ATIA Travel Trends April 2026 report, which draws on Australian Bureau of Statistics overseas arrivals and departures data, shows outbound travel to the U.S. fell 4.8 per cent for the year to February 2026, with a sharper 9.7 per cent decline in February alone.
At the same time, Vietnam (below) grew 16.1 per cent, China 15.9 per cent and Japan 15.6 per cent. Indonesia and New Zealand continued to carry the highest volumes overall.
The shift is not confined to outbound. Inbound travel from the USA to Australia also softened, growing just 4 per cent for the year against a national inbound average of 9.5 per cent, and recording a slight decline of 1.6 per cent in February.
The data covers the period before the escalation of U.S. tariff announcements in early April 2026. ATIA expects the next reporting period to show whether that acceleration has sharpened further.
“The USA numbers are the story in this data,” said Dean Long, ATIA CEO.
“Australians are travelling in record numbers but they are increasingly choosing Asia over America and the trend is clear across multiple months and multiple destinations. Vietnam, Japan and China are all growing strongly. The USA is not.”
Inbound visitors from China to Australia surged 79.5 per cent in February year-on-year, the strongest single-market monthly result in the data.
For the full year to February 2026, China grew 21.3 per cent to become Australia’s second-largest inbound market at 1.1 million visitors, behind only New Zealand at 1.44 million.
Overall inbound tourism to Australia reached 9,099,540 visitors for the year, up 9.5 per cent, with February alone recording 943,190 arrivals, a 19.7 per cent increase. The UK (+18.8%) and Hong Kong (+17.0%) also recorded strong full-year growth.
Total outbound travel by Australians grew 6.2 per cent to more than 12.6 million trips for the year. Growth was recorded across most months, with May up 20.1 per cent, March up 9.5 per cent and October up 7.9 per cent.
Domestically, seat capacity grew across most major routes between January 2025 and January 2026, led by Adelaide-Sydney and Brisbane-Sydney (both up 7.2%) and Brisbane-Melbourne (up 6.8%).
Load factors across the network ranged between 82 and 92 per cent, indicating strong demand relative to available supply.
“Australians made more than 12.6 million overseas trips in the year to February. That is a sector operating at full pace,” added Mr Long.
“The opportunity for travel professionals is real, the demand is there and the data tells you exactly where to focus.”
