Tourism Australia publishes Quarterly Market Update

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Created on Monday, 25 November 2013 16:25

Written by Editorial staff

Tourism Australia has released its Quarterly Market Update, which contains some interesting facts and figures about international arrivals Down Under.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), a total of 6.4 million short-term visitors came to our country in the year to September 2013. This represents an increase of 5.2 per cent on the same period last year.

It's an encouraging trend that's set to continue, reveals Tourism Research Australia's Tourism Forecasts.

This biannual report, which was published last month, shows the number of short-term visitors is likely to reach 6.6 million in 2013-14 (a year-on-year increase of 5.8 per cent) and approximately 7 million by 2014-15 (a year-on-year increase of 5.6 per cent).

This isn't the only aspect of the tourism industry that's on the rise, either. There's also been a significant jump in expenditure from international arrivals - it's increased by a whopping 8.9 per cent over the past four years.

In the year to June 2013, people who travelled to Australia on immigration visas spent a total of $28.2 billion across the country. This is up 6 per cent on the previous year, which means we're moving steadily closer to the goals for expenditure outlined in the Tourism 2020 Strategy.

The government hopes to increase expenditure from international arrivals to between $115 billion and $140 billion by the end of the decade.

Australia's Tourism 2020 Strategy also highlights the importance of attracting visitors from Asia to our shores. This is another area in which the Quarterly Market Update indicates we're doing well.

As it stands, visitors from Asia account for a whopping 48 per cent of expenditure in Australia. This is 6 per cent higher than in 2008 and will no doubt continue to climb as more people from this region choose Down Under as their business or holiday destination.

In the September quarter alone, the number of people who travelled from China to Australia rose by a massive 42 per cent. The amount of international visitors from Singapore also jumped by 12 per cent, while those from Malaysia went up by 26 per cent.

The Quarterly Market Update paints a glowing picture of the state of Australia's tourism industry and indicates migration agents' workloads could be increasing as we head toward to 2020!