Growth in visitor arrivals to Australia from the world’s major regions remains uneven, according to the latest tourism figures.
Today’s release of Overseas Arrivals and Departures data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that while the number of international tourists to Australia continues to build on last year’s record arrivals and is up 0.4 per cent this year, the month of July saw a decline of 1.7 per cent.
“The ongoing strong growth in visitor arrivals from China and south-east Asian markets continues to bolster the sector while the decline in visitors from Japan and other leading markets in Europe and North America reflect the current nature of their economies,” said the Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson AM MP.
“The Australian Government is continuing to work with businesses to help them to adapt to changing markets, changing consumer preferences, technologies and the effects of globalisation by continuing to implement the National Long Term Tourism Strategy.”
“Only a long-term focus will yield the best results. That means taking advantage of new opportunities in the growing Asian markets and building long-term resilience through investment and sensible regulatory reforms.”
The Minister Assisting on Tourism, Senator Nick Sherry, said an agreement to double the number of seats between Australia and Indonesia opens up fresh opportunities.
“Indonesians are increasingly affluent and looking to Australia for a quality holiday – already, Indonesia is among our top-dozen inbound markets.
“With practical reforms such as air services agreements, we can make the most of another emerging market,” Minister Sherry said.
Australia’s leading inbound market by value, China – worth $3.4 billion, continues to increase robustly, up 13 per cent in July 2011 and 19 per cent so far this year. Strong growth was also recorded for Malaysia and Singapore, both up eight per cent in July, compared with the same period last year.
Short-term resident departures continue to increase at double-digit rates, up 11.0 per cent for the month of July 2011 and 10 per cent for the period January to July 2011.
Overseas Arrivals and Departures is at www.abs.gov.au