Australia’s visitor economy continues its impressive expansion with the latest overseas arrivals figures covering the last financial year (2015-16) confirming double digit growth in key markets and China continuing to rocket towards the top of the league table said the Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF).

The latest ABS Overseas Arrivals figures released today confirm that 7.8 million people travelled to Australia over the 2015-16 financial year – up 10 per cent on the previous year.

“The tourism industry is the envy of the Australian economy – it’s been growing faster than the national average and the latest overseas arrivals figures show why it’s a super-growth industry for our future,” said Margy Osmond, TTF CEO.

“This is why TTF has been a strong advocate of the need to develop a dedicated economic strategy that will map out how we turbo-charge industries like tourism to create the jobs and economic wealth we need to sustain our envied quality of life into the coming decades.

“With a Tourism Minister now back in Cabinet with Steven Ciobo, its long past time for the tourism industry to be moved to centre stage in the economic debate.

“If we want to continue to deliver this impressive figures we need a Government willing to take action to reduce the cost of travelling to Australia by slashing visa fees and the Passenger Movement Charge and ditching the backpacker tax, invest in our destination marketing campaigns, build visitor infrastructure and public transport that improves the visitor experience and work with industry to train and secure its workforce.”