New figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today show that 2010 was a good year for Australia's international tourism industry with arrivals growing by 5.4 per cent on the previous year to a total of 5.9 million in 2010. This positive full year result was assisted by strong growth in arrivals in December 2010, up 4.4 per cent on the same period in 2009.
In 2010, arrivals from China, South Korea and Japan were particularly strong, up 24.0 per cent, 18.2 per cent and 12.0 per cent respectively. By contrast, European and North American markets were sluggish, attributed to a combination of economic challenges and one-off shocks such as the Icelandic volcano eruption in April in these regions. This was particularly evident for the United Kingdom (down 2.6 per cent) and the United States (down 1.6 per cent).
Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson AM MP, says arrivals to Australia have been holding up very well compared with many other destinations.
“The Australian tourism industry can take comfort from today’s figures,” Minister Ferguson said.
“While many of our competitor destinations continue to struggle, Australia's reach is growing especially in the important emerging markets of Asia.
“The rebound in visitors from Japan, up 12.0 per cent, is also good to see, as is the growth of 4.6 per cent from New Zealand, which is our biggest and most mature source market.
“Increasing airline capacity, especially between Australia and China, is one factor in these results. But so is the high-quality of Australian tourism experiences. Word-of-mouth is clearly spreading across the region about what a great place Australia is to visit.
“Continuing to appeal to our international visitors will be particularly important for Australia’s $34 billion tourism industry in 2011 following the negative perceptions created by the floods and Cyclone Yasi.
“Oprah’s visit to Australia in December last year was a huge success – one that government and industry are working hard to capitalise on.”
Minister Assisting on Tourism, Nick Sherry, said the small business sector can expect to reap many of the economic benefits from this growth in visitor numbers.
“Typically, nearly half of all tourism-related businesses employ fewer than 20 people. Small and micro-sized companies are often well-placed to capture new markets with innovative products and services such as eco-tourism and new Indigenous attractions,” Senator Sherry said.
“In Queensland and Victoria, we've seen that tourism is not always an industry for the faint of heart. But just as tourism operators are often the first to lose business to natural disasters, they're often the first to bounce back. Today's figures paint a bright picture for small tourism operators.”
There were 806,700 short-term resident departures in December (up 10.3 per cent), taking the total for 2010 to 7.1 million, a 13.2 per cent increase on 2009.
The complete ABS figures are available at http://www.abs.gov.au