Chinese New Year boost for Australia
Chinese tourists continue to lead the influx of Asian visitors to Australia, with new ABS figures showing 60,600 Chinese visitors arrived in January 2011 – up more than 60% on the same month last year.
According to the latest Overseas Arrivals and Departures data, Chinese visitors also accounted for 477,200 of the international tourists who arrived in Australia in the 12 months to January 2011 (up 36.7% on the previous year) – overtaking the number of visitors from the United States (470,600, down 3%), Australia’s third biggest international market.
This trend continued among other key Asian source markets over the 12-month period, including Korea (up 16.9%), Malaysia (up 14.1%), Japan (up 10.1%) and Singapore (up 10%).
John Lee, chief executive of peak industry body, Tourism Task Force, said the growth of Chinese visitors in January 2011 was likely the result of Chinese New Year celebrations falling in February, with travel from Asian markets rising sharply leading up to the holiday.
Lee cautioned that there was still a major disparity between the total number of international arrivals and the number of Australians travelling overseas.
“The gap is widening. While we saw a 4.8% (5,847,603 tourists) increase in inbound arrivals in the year ending January 2011, on the flip side overseas departures were up by 12.6% (7,171,200 tourists),†he said.
Ian Jarrett
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