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 slashingthe 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.”
Source:- TTF
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