File photo: CGTN

CANBERRA, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- China has remained the biggest source of international visitors to Australia in 2019, according to the statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Tuesday.

There were 9.5 million international visitors to Australia in 2019 -- a new record and an increase of 220,300 from 2018, with about 15 percent, or about 1.44 million coming from China's mainland.

On the other side of the equation, Australians made 11.3 million overseas trips in 2019 -- almost twice as many as in 2009.

New Zealand was the most popular international destination with Australians made 1.46 million short-term trips across the Tasman Sea.

"There has been a strong increase of Australian residents traveling overseas over recent years," Jenny Dobak, the ABS's Director of Migration Statistics, said in a media release.

Indonesia was the second most popular destination, attracting 1.4 million visits from Australia, while China was in fifth place with 608,000.

The average duration away for Australians was 14 days, compared to the average stay in Australia by international visitors of 10 days.

Australians spent an average of 24 days in Britain, the most of any top-10 destination, followed by India (23 days) and China (17 days).