What the Weak Australian Dollar is doing to Long-Haul Travel

It just could be that the weakness of the Australian dollar—it fell 17 percent in value vs. the U.S. dollar during 2015—is having an impact on the country’s long-haul travel appetite. And, with the exception of New Zealand, just about every outbound flight from the island continent amounts to a long-haul trip. The latest preliminary data for the Australian Bureau of Statistics …

 Short-Term Resident Departures from Australia:
—Trend estimates: Short-term resident departures during November 2015 (799,800 movements) increased 0.5 percent, compared with October 2015 (795,600 movements). This followed monthly increases of 0.6 percent in both September 2015 and October 2015. The current trend estimate for departures is 4.9 percent higher than in November 2014.

—Seasonally adjusted estimates: During November 2015, short-term resident departures (784,600 movements) decreased 2.8 percent compared with October 2015 (807,600 movements). This followed a monthly decrease of 0.8 percent in September 2015 and a monthly increase of 3.8 percent% in October 2015.

—Original estimates: There were 703,000 short-term resident departures from Australia in November 2015.

Resident departures, Short-term (000s)

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics

For an up-to-date chart showing the past year’s fluctuation in the value of the Australian dollars versus the U.S. dollar, visit this link: http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=AUD&to=USD&view=1Y