Australians can’t get away fast enough
The gap between the number of international arrivals and Australians travelling overseas has hit a new high.
In the past 12 months almost 1.4 million more Australians travelled overseas than the number of international tourists coming to Australia.
And despite the hullabaloo of chat show queen Oprah Winfrey’s promotional visit to Australia, the number of US visitors to Australia was down 3.8 percent in the year to March.
UK arrivals were down even further, dropping 6.8 percent in the year as the high Aussie dollar and weak UK economy took a toll.
The ABS release of the Overseas Arrivals and Departures statistics for March, show international arrivals to Australia down 5.1 percent compared to the same month last year, while departures fell 4.7 per cent, as Australians deferred travel to the extended Easter break in April.
Over the year to the end of March, the 9.6 percent growth in Australians travelling internationally is almost four times faster than the 2.5 per cent growth in arrivals.
John Lee, CEO of peak national industry body, Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF), said, “There is significant investment in new attractions and tourism infrastructure like convention centres going on in our regional competitors, and Australia must continue to develop its product to ensure we can offer a value proposition – especially with the strength of the dollar.
“We also need to remove unnecessary barriers to entry for tourists from some of our key growth markets who have to go through a time-consuming and expensive visa process.â€
Ian Jarrett
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