The Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson AM MP, has welcomed a report which shows Australia's inbound travel sector is out-performing many of its competitors and showing resilience in a very tough global market.
International Visitors in Australia: June 2009 Quarterly results of the International Visitor Survey highlights that despite the Global Financial Crisis, there was virtually no change in the number of international visitors to Australia during the June Quarter 2009, compared to the June Quarter 2008.
Minister Ferguson said: "The global recession and swine flu have taken a big toll on tourism globally in recent months. In fact, the World Tourism Organisation forecasts international tourism will this year decline by between 4 and 6 per cent.
"With competing markets such as the UK (-4%), Hawaii (-13%) and Japan (-30%) recording significant falls in this quarter, it is good to see that international holiday travellers have helped Australian tourism buck the global trend and attract virtually the same number of visitors as it did during the June Quarter in 2008."
The report shows that the number of people whose main purpose for visiting Australia was education or employment increased in terms of visitor number (+9%), nights stayed (+8%) and total trip spend (up 14%), led by the Chinese and Malaysian markets.
The business sector has borne most of the ongoing impact of the Global Financial Crisis, with substantial declines in visitors (-22%), nights (-24%) and total trip spend (-25%).
Minister Ferguson said the outlook for international tourism to Australia over the coming months was mixed, with the September Quarter expected to be impacted by the ongoing economic uncertainty in many of Australia's tourism source markets and the impact of swine flu on travel from some Asian countries.
International Visitors in Australia: June 2009 Quarterly results of the International Visitor Survey is available from Tourism Research Australia and can be downloaded at www.tra.australia.com or email tra@tourism.australia.com.