International arrivals slump, outbound surges

Ten thousand fewer international visitors came to Australia in 2011 compared to the previous year, while the number of Australians travelling internationally surged to 7.8 million, according to peak national body, Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF).

The Overseas Arrivals and Departures from the ABS shows Australians took more than 1.9 million more trips overseas than international visitors came to this country, pushing the annual tourism balance of trade to a record deficit of almost $8 billion.

TTF chief executive John Lee calls it “a seriously worrying trend”.

“With the dollar likely to remain strong for some time and investment in new resorts in south-east Asia, many leisure tourism operators in Australia are facing an uncertain future.”

Lee said the same global economic conditions pushing up the Aussie dollar were affecting Australia’s source markets.

“Uncertainty in many of our traditional markets has seen declines in annual arrivals, including from the UK, Europe, Japan, Canada and the US.

“Growth from emerging markets including China – now our third largest source country – Indonesia, India, and the Philippines has not made up for the falls,” Lee said.