Inbound tourism kicks off 2016 with “strong start”

Inbound tourism kicks off 2016 with “strong start”

The number of overseas visitors heading to Australia showed strong growth year on year in January, getting 2016 off to a flying start.

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed that while the weaker Aussie dollar isn’t stopping Australians from heading overseas, international visitor numbers to Australia hit 659,100 in January, up more than 13% on the same month last year.

During January, the number of Chinese visitors hit 102,700, 55% higher than in January 2015.

Tourism Australia described it as a “strong start to the year”.

“It’s good to see the start of 2016 continuing the strong finish we enjoyed to 2015, with double-digit growth for the month of January and year on year international arrivals above 9%,” managing director John O’Sullivan said.

Although he said there were plenty of “stand-outs”, the 55% increase in Chinese visitor arrivals for the month of January was “phenomenal”.

New Zealanders again were the largest group of inbound visitors, with numbers rising 5% to 116,200.

By comparison, the number of Aussies who left on overseas trips rose by nearly 1% to 821,500 during January compared to the previous month. However the rise was much weaker than the 3.7% jump in December.

Image credit: iStock

 

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