Departures soar, arrivals stable: ABS

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6/11/2009 1:44:42 PM

Departures soar, arrivals stable: ABS

International visitor arrivals to Australia have stabilised as a record number of Australians travelled overseas in the last 12 months, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Original data from the ABS showed there were 438,500 arrivals in September 2009, up 9% on the same month last year. But with the impact of the financial crisis last year, The Tourism and Transport Forum said a better comparison would be to look at the previous year, with arrivals up 0.7% on September 2007.

New Zealand continued to be the largest source market to Australia, despite a 1% fall in visitor numbers compared to last year. It accounted for 91,000 visitors in September.

Visitors from the UK rose 3% to 56,000, while visitors from the US rose 12.1% to 41,500, on the back of increased capacity across the Pacific.

The solid arrivals result comes as more than six million Australians departed the country in a 12-month period, a record result.

The Tourism and Transport Forum said the result will place more pressure on local operators as Australians choose to spend their travel dollars overseas.

““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,” said TTF executive director Brett Gale.

6 November 2009

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