Australia is steadily winning back Chinese tourists after the significant post-pandemic slump.
Short-term overseas arrivals figures, just released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, show that 74,500 Chinese visitors arrived in November, 2025.
This was still well below the figure of 101,390 in the same month of 2019, but a significant lift from the 55,800 recorded in 2024.
For other markets, the number of visitors has already surpassed 2019 levels, notably New Zealand – 127,820 in November 2025 compared with 120,410 in 2019, the UK 80,090 (up from 68,880), Japan 46,440 (up from 45,530) and Indonesia 23,340 (up from 15,550).
South Korea is becoming a major source of overseas visitors, nearly doubling from 26,010 in 2019 to 44,760 in November last year.
Overall, Australia had a bumper tourist month in November, 2025 with 831,170 short-term visitor arrivals, an increase of 19.5 percent on one year earlier.
The bulk of the growth in percentage terms was in NSW (25 percent), Western Australia (23.7) and SA (23.4). Victoria was next at 16 percent followed by Queensland (13.9).
Full details are on the ABS website.
