Good news on visitor arrivals
International tourist arrivals to Australia are growing at the same annual rate as the number of overseas trips being taken by Australians for the first time in almost a decade, according to peak national industry body Tourism & Transport Forum.
The latest overseas arrivals and departures figures from the ABS show that international arrivals grew 4.9% in the 12 months to the end of February, the same rate as Australians travelling overseas.
TTF acting chief executive officer Trent Zimmerman said the annual figures are good news for Australian tourism operators. “It’s the first time since late 2003 that the annual growth rate for international arrivals has matched that of international departures,” Mr Zimmerman said.
“The moderation in growth of outbound travel by Australians is a further indication that Australians have adjusted to the strong Australian dollar as the new normal. We hope that this will translate into a continuation of the recovery in domestic tourism, which accounts for around 70% of expenditure in Australia’s visitor economy.”
Mr Zimmerman said the OADs also show that Lunar New Year drove a significant increase in Chinese arrivals in February. “More than 110,000 Chinese visitors came to Australia in February – the biggest number of Chinese arrivals in a single month. Chinese visitors accounted for almost one in five of all international visitors to Australia in February, underscoring the importance of Chinese New Year to our tourism industry and the value of investing in events which attract those visitors.
“It’s also an endorsement of Tourism Australia’s expansion in China and of plans announced this week for the G’day China tourism, trade and investment initiative.
“Pleasingly, we are also seeing a continuing recovery in arrivals from traditional markets like the US (+ 5.8% for the year) and Japan (+ 4.2%), which demonstrates the value of long-term investment in marketing and promotional campaigns in a range of key source markets.”
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