Australia has recorded its largest ever drop in overseas travel with visitor arrivals falling 60 per cent in March 2020 compared to a year earlier, according to data released on Tuesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Jenny Dobak from the ABS said there was also a record fall in the number of Australian residents returning from short-term trips overseas, down 29 per cent to 538,400.

These large decreases reflect the travel restriction progressively put in place by the Australian government from the beginning of February due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

"In March 2020, there were 331,900 visitors who had arrived for a short-term trip compared to 836,300 12 months earlier," Ms Dobak said.

"The steep fall in visitor arrivals to Australia in March was from all regions around the world. Even our largest source country New Zealand, recorded a 56 per cent drop.

"Of the top 10 source countries, China recorded the largest decrease of 78 per cent followed closely by Japan with a decrease of 75 per cent."

All states and territories recorded large falls in international visitors.

Although NSW led the way with the largest volume of international arrivals (114,500 visitors), numbers were down 64 per cent compared to one year earlier.

The Northern Territory saw the largest fall (-66 per cent). Queensland also saw a steep decline in visitor numbers (-63 per cent) followed by Victoria (-58 per cent); South Australia (-54 per cent); Western Australia (-53 per cent); Tasmania (-51 per cent); and the ACT (-43 per cent).

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