Issues & Trends – September 2011
Inbound travel up as TA switches focus to domestic tourism
TOURISM Australia (TA) managing director Andrew McEvoy has hailed the results of the latest quarterly International Visitor Survey (IVS) released earlier this month by Tourism Research Australia.
It shows visitor numbers increased by three per cent for the year ending June 2011. More importantly average duration of stay increased faster than this with visitor nights up four per cent, and expenditure (up five per cent) rose at an even higher rate.
Business travel was buoyant with the number of business travellers to Australia rising by nine per cent for the 12 months period. Asian markets were the strongest performers, led by China.
A statement from Minister for Tourism Martin Ferguson pointed out that the result was achieved in the face of global economic uncertainty, the strong Australian dollar and natural disasters.
McEvoy said: “Despite the regular reports of doom and gloom, the fact is that 2011 has been a remarkably good year so far for Australian tourism.”
“International arrivals, visitor nights, dispersal and spending – all these measures are up. The four per cent increase in total international spending is particularly pleasing, as we progress towards our goal of doubling overnight tourism expenditure to $140 billion by 2020.
Minister Assisting on Tourism, Senator Nick Sherry, said the rise in high-yield business travellers, who
spent $8 billion in Australia in the 12 months to June, “opens up fresh oppor-tunities for investment in quality hotels and other tourism infrastructure”.
Ferguson also appealed to Australians to consider domestic rather than overseas holidays which have boomed in the wake of the high Australian dollar.
“Some parts of Australia are still doing it tough, so Australians need to balance out the appeal of overseas travel with Australian holiday breaks to support the sector which directly employs half a million Australians,” he said.
• The next stage of Tourism Australia’s There’s nothing like Australia campaign, launched earlier this month, has a domestic holiday focus.
The campaign invites Australians to share their favourite holiday place or experiences at www.nothinglikeaustralia.com.au to be eligible to win a luxury domestic holiday and nominate their family and friends to share it with as part of their “Aussie Holiday Dream Team”.
TA’s McEvoy said the digitally-led, interactive promotion aimed to build on the global success of the There’s nothing like Australia campaign launched last year.
“With this next promotion we want people to encourage other Australians to take a fresh look at the best local holiday experiences,” he said.
Luxury Lodges of Australia, Qantas and Sony Music have contributed to a $300,000 prize pool.