There has been a massive 98 per cent plunge in the number of arrivals at airports and maritime terminals in the past two months as COVID-19 travel restrictions here and abroad have brought international journeys to a virtual halt, according to a senior Department of Home Affairs official.
Department of Home Affairs deputy secretary Cheryl-Anne Moy said there were 1.1 million fewer people than normal passing through the nation's borders between the beginning of March and May 10, underlining the scale of the damage caused to industries including accommodation, tourism, education, aviation and agriculture caused by the lockdown of the nation's borders.
In an interview with the contentgroup, Ms Moy said that, "our work profile has changed dramatically as we've had a considerable drop, about 98 per cent drop, in travellers coming through the system. We've lost 1.11 million people".
Ms Moy's comments came as the Australian Bureau of Statistics released figures showing a record 60 per cent plunge in international arrivals in March compared with a year earlier.
The Chinese market was particularly hard hit. There were fewer than 28,000 arrivals from China, a huge 77.5 per cent decline from a year earlier.
Arrivals from Japan fell away almost as steeply, down 75.1 per cent and journeys from the United States, Malaysia and Singapore were all down by more than 60 per cent.
As work proceeds on efforts to create a trans-Tasman travel bubble, the ABS reported that arrivals from New Zealand dropped to 48,200 in March, a decline of more than 56 per cent.
The Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales were the hardest hit, recording visitor number falls of 63 per cent or more compared with a year earlier. The ACT, with a decline of 43 per cent, was the most lightly affected.
Alongside the blow to tourism and accommodation operators, the plunge in overseas arrivals has also hit educators.
According to the ABS, international student arrivals in March were 16 per cent lower than a year earlier, including 5230 fewer university students, 3170 fewer TAFE students and 2300 fewer English language students.
ABS Director of Migration Statistics Jenny Dobak said there was also a record 29 per cent fall in the number of Australians returning from short-term trips overseas, with arrivals down to 538,400.
With airports and shipping terminals handling a fraction of their usual passenger traffic, many travel-associated businesses and services have had to scale back their operations, including Australian Border Force.
Ms Moy said that with airports and ship passenger terminals falling largely silent, Australian Border Force have been redeployed to other roles within the department.
"We've had to re-look at...where those staff who would normally process travellers, what they
move to in terms of what work they're undertaking," she said.
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Many had been re-directed to cargo and international mail centres to help detect revenue evasion while others had taken on a new role processing
exemptions for those seeking to travel to and from Australia within existing travel restrictions.
She said Home Affairs was also making longer-term adjustments to the way it operated to take into account what could be long-lasting changes to international travel caused by the coronavirus.
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