travel to vs. arrive at

[Zarinamo]

English Language Tests, Intermediate level

ESL/EFL Test #151 "Traveling Downunder: How can I immigrate to Australia?", question 5

There has been a sharp increase in the number of boat people ......... to Australia in the past ten years.

(a) arriving
(b) traveling
(c) departing
(d) transiting

English Language Tests, Intermediate level

ESL/EFL Test #151 "Traveling Downunder: How can I immigrate to Australia?", answer 5

There has been a sharp increase in the number of boat people traveling to Australia in the past ten years.

Correct answer: (b) traveling

Your answer was: incorrect
There has been a sharp increase in the number of boat people arriving to Australia in the past ten years.
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Can we use arrive also??? Or arrive just used with prep. at???
Thank you

[Yankee]

Hi

No, 'arrive' is not appropriate in combination with the preposition 'to' in the sentence.
In this particular sentence, the preposition 'in' would work better than 'at' in combination with the verb 'arrive'.
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English