Record high for Australian travellers

About 12.4 million people came to Australia in 2009 and 12.3 million left, making the total number of arrivals and departures more than 24.7 million.

Defying forecasts international departures would fall by nearly three per cent last year, they rose by more than eight per cent as Australia's economy fared relatively well throughout the economic downturn.

A record 6.3 million residents made short-term departures, up from 5.8 million in 2008, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Research.

New Zealand, the USA and Indonesia were the top three destinations for Australian travellers, while tourists visiting Australia were most likely to come from New Zealand, the UK and the USA.

For only the second time in two decades there were more short-term resident departures (of less than one year) than short-term visitor arrivals.

In 2008, resident departures were higher than visitor arrivals by more than 200,000 but in 2009 this had jumped to more than 700,000.

Australia attracted just 1700 fewer international visitors last year than in 2008, while the number of Australians travelling internationally jumped by nearly half a million on the same year.

Tourism and Transport Forum executive director Brett Gale said the forecasts at the beginning of last year were for a drop in international arrivals of 4.1 per cent, so holding steady was a great result.

"Globally, international tourism fell an estimated 4 per cent in 2009, so Australia has increased its market share by maintaining visitor arrivals," he said.

"However, the tourism industry worked hard to stimulate that demand, with low airfares and great value accommodation deals having a significant impact on businesses' bottom lines."

He said as many as 30,000 jobs may have been lost in the tourism industry nationwide.

Demand picked up substantially in the second half of 2009 and consumer confidence was returning.

Three of the key sectors for tourism operators - convention delegates, business travellers and holiday travellers - all grew in December compared to the same time the previous year.

"The bad news is that the phenomenal growth in the number of Australians travelling overseas means that we are now a significant net importer of tourism, and that's having a negative impact on our terms of trade," Mr Gale said.

Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy said Australia saw good growth from the USA, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, India and China but markets like Japan and Korea fell because of local economic conditions.