The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) yesterday released short-term visitor arrivals data for February, which gives an initial look at the impact of the coronavirus travel restrictions.
Recall that the Australian Government blocked travel from China in February, which had a predictably large impact in arrivals from that country.
As shown in the next chart, Chinese arrivals collapsed by 76% in February, falling to 19,500 from 81,600 the month prior:
As we know, China is by far the biggest source of international students, comprising 27% of total international enrolments as at December 2019:
Not surprisingly then, annual international student arrivals fell by 7.9% in February and by 5.7% year-on-year:
I expect international student arrivals to collapse in the months ahead as the blanket coronavirus travel bans, which were rolled-out in March, take full effect.
