This is how a Chinese New Year "Giga selfie" will look - taken from Circular Quay by a camera set up a kilometre away.
Olym Li is snapped ahead of Lunar New Year celebrations in Sydney. Picture: Rohan Kelly
THE weaker exchange rate did not keep too many Australians at home in January with almost three-quarters of a million people heading overseas, 50,000 more than a year ago.
The 744,500 short-term departures represented a 7.5 per cent increase on the same time last year, and meant almost 9.5 million Aussies travelled abroad in 12 months.
Australian Bureau of Statistics’ data for January showed New Zealand was the top destination, attracting 118,800 Aussie visitors, followed by Indonesia with 101,000.
People also continued to flock to the US in droves, despite our reduced buying power.
In January, 73,300 made the trip across the Pacific, up eight per cent on the same time last year.
Japan was another strong drawcard for Australian travellers, with visitors up 10.5 per cent on January 2015 to 44,200.
Australians are still flocking to the US despite the dollar buying less. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied
Heading in the other direction, Chinese arrivals soared to even greater heights with numbers up a staggering 55 per cent on the same time last year, aided by Chinese New Year celebrations.
Tourism Australia Managing Director John O’Sullivan said the month-on-month growth in Chinese visitors from 73,700 to 114,300 was “phenomenal”.
Chinese tourists Amanda Wang and Ling Li enjoy some of Melbourne’s shopping. Picture: Stuart McEvoySource:News Corp Australia
“It’s good to see the start of 2016 continuing the strong finish we enjoyed to 2015, with double-digit growth (13.6 per cent) for the month of January and year on year international arrivals above nine per cent,” he said.
A total of 620,500 people arrived from overseas in the month, half of whom spent most of their time in New South Wales.
Victoria continued to record the strongest growth in international visitors — up 18.8 per cent to 201,700, followed by Queensland with a 10.7 per cent increase to 165,600.
Qatar Airways’ given a water cannon salute on its maiden flight to Sydney. Picture: James CroucherSource:News Corp Australia
Increased flight capacity is helping to facilitate the booming influx of tourists with Qatar Airways launching a new daily service from Doha into Sydney last week.
Adelaide will be added to Qatar’s schedule from May and Brisbane is expected to follow later this year.
Air Canada is introducing a direct daily service between Brisbane and Vancouver in June and Singapore Airlines will fly into Canberra from September.
Qantas and Virgin Australia are also adding capacity to trans-Tasman flights to meet demand for New Zealand holidays and business trips.
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