Up, up and away – Australians in record exodus
CANBERRA – The number of Australians travelling overseas has topped six million in a 12-month period for the first time, according to analysis of the latest ABS Overseas Arrivals and Departures data by the Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF).
Almost 630,000 Australians went overseas in September, taking the total for the year ending September to a record 6,019,700.
TTF Executive Director Brett Gale said this travel comes at a cost to local operators.
“Australians are increasingly taking advantage of cheap airfares and the strong Australian dollar to travel internationally,†he said, “which means they’re not travelling within their own country.â€
“With confidence and the dollar rising and if airfares remain low, this trend will continue for some time.
“This means Australian tourism operators miss out, with people choosing to spend their travel dollars in other countries.â€
Gale said there are signs of a recovery in inbound arrivals.
“Arrivals for September were up nine percent on last year, however September 2008 was the month the global financial crisis really took hold and we saw a sizeable fall in arrivals.
“A better comparison is that September 2009 is only up marginally (0.7 per cent) on September 2007.
“It’s also notable that there’s been a turnaround in arrivals from countries hit by the economic crisis and swine flu, including the US, China and even Japan.
“But a key factor – for both arrivals and departures – is the availability of cheap airfares, and that’s something which needs to be leveraged urgently.
New Zealand arrivals grow
Key Results for the four weeks ended 25 October 2009 (Source: Preliminary results from Statistics NZ)
Inbound Travel: International Visitor Arrivals
* Total visitor arrivals up by 6.2% over the same period last year.
* Ups: Australia 19%, China 21%
* Downs: UK -9%, US -1%, Japan -8%, South Korea -40%, Germany -1%, Canada -9%, Singapore -9%, Netherlands -11%
Outbound Travel: NZ Resident Departures (short-term overseas trips)
* Total NZ trips abroad up by 0.9% over the same period last year.
* Ups: Australia 2%, Fiji 4%, Samoa 32%, Thailand 14%, Canada 63%
* Downs: UK -11%, US -2%, China -4%, Cook Islands -5%, India -14%
Ian Jarrett
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