Year of the Dragon off to good start
International arrivals into Australia jumped 4.8% in January, thanks to Asian visitors coming to Australia to celebrate Lunar New Year, according to peak industry body, Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF).
The ABS’s Overseas Arrivals and Departures show arrivals from China rose 27.4% with solid rises from Hong Kong (+22.0%), Taiwan (+19.1%) and Indonesia (+13.7 %).
TTF chief executive John Lee said, “China represents a massive opportunity for us, which is why Tourism Australia is rightly focusing on lifting its presence in more Chinese cities.
“It is critical we continue to build on that momentum and capitalise on the competitive advantage of our proximity to Asia.
“However, China’s potential is also recognised by our competitors, who are making substantial investments to attract Chinese tourists.
“The most recent annual figures show more than one million Chinese travelled to the United States – up 36.2% on the previous year, compared to annual growth of 17.1% to Australia.
“While smaller numbers of Chinese are travelling to the UK and Canada, they are also seeing faster growth than Australia, at 32% and 24.4% respectively.
“These figures clearly demonstrate the urgency of increasing the support for Tourism Australia’s activities in China and better leveraging the presence of other Australian departments and agencies in China to promote Australia as a destination for business, leisure, investment and study.”
Outbound travel by Australians rose 4.7% in January, with the annual growth slowing to 9.1%. Departures to Thailand rose 7,000 (up 17.9%), the US up 5,500 (11.0%) and Vietnam up 2,700 (12.3%).
Ian Jarrett
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