Strongest growth rate in more than a decade sees international visitors continue to flock to Australia

Strongest growth rate in more than a decade sees international visitors continue to flock to Australia

The Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF) has welcomed the latest figures on short-term overseas arrivals and has renewed its call for the Federal Government to enact TTF’s economic plan to turbo-charge growth in the visitor economy,

The latest ABS Overseas Arrivals figures released today confirm that 7.9 million people travelled to Australia over the 12 months to July 2016 – up 10.6 per cent on the previous year. That makes it the strongest annual growth rate since March 2005.

Top 10 Nations for Overseas Arrivals League Table

Country of Origin Arrivals (12mths to July 16) Increase/Decrease
1.       New Zealand 1,327,500 3.3%
2.       China 1,160,600 23.2%
3.       UK 708,300 5.4%
4.       USA 670,900 15.5%
5.       Singapore 432,000 15.3%
6.       Japan 381,600 17.2%
7.       Malaysia 363,200 10.7%
8.       South Korea 265,400 23.0%
9.       India 242,900 8.9%
10.   Hong Kong 239,400 14.8%

Source: ABS Overseas Arrivals

“Australia continues to see a strong surge in international visitor numbers with double digit growth in seven of our top 10 tourist source markets,” said Margy Osmond, TTF CEO.

“The Chinese market continues its rocket trajectory towards the top of the league table – 23.2 per cent growth over the past 12 months is truly astounding and yet we are attracting less than one per cent of Chinese travellers to Australia.

“We are seeing fantastic double digit growth in our other key markets of the US, Singapore, Japan, South Korea and shows the attractiveness of Australia as a destination is wide-spread through the Asia-Pacific and into North America.

“Month after month, the evidence continues to build why Australia’s visitor economy is the industry to back with a dedicated economic strategy from the Federal Government. If we get the right plan in place we can do much better than what we are seeing at the moment.

“Before the July Federal Election, TTF released a comprehensive economic plan to turbo-charge the visitor economy by slashing the fees and charges which add to the cost of travelling to Australia, investing in tourism marketing, supporting the industry securing its workforce for the future, building the visitor infrastructure and public transport that improves the experience of visiting our cities and regions, and recognising the importance of improving the visitor experience at our international gateways.”