Record US arrivals help fuel solid tourism growth

Record US arrivals help fuel solid tourism growth
By admin


A record number of Americans jumped on flights to Australia last year as a combination of improved economic conditions and high profile marketing campaigns re-energised the US market.

Almost 510,000 people visited from the US in 2013, a rise of 6.2% on the previous year.

Figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show a total of 6.5 million international arrivals to Australia last year, up 5.5% on 2012.

Tourism Australia identified the US as the standout performer, heralding the success of recent marketing activity as a key reason for the upsurge, a visit by Oprah Winfrey among them.

“The global GFC hit the US pretty hard and inevitably this had an impact over the past few years on the number of Americans travelling Down Under,” Tourism Australia spokesman Leo Seaton said.

“We always knew that the appetite among Americans to travel would return as the US economy improved and the Aussie dollar came off its highs and we made sure we were well placed to take advantage with strong and high profile campaigns.

“We haven’t seen growth like this in our US arrivals since the Sydney Olympics.”

Marketing activity attributed to fuelling the growth included the visit of Oprah and Ellen and the Best Jobs in the World Campaign.

The US is Australia’s fourth largest market by volume – behind New Zealand, China and UK – and the third largest by spend. Expenditure by Americans last year climbed 8% to $2.5 billion with Tourism Australia hoping that will grow to between $4.5b and $5.5b by 2020.

Elsewhere, mainland China delivered 715,000 visitors, a rise of 14%, while a further 25,000 came from Hong Kong, up 10.4%. India and Indonesia, identified as key growth markets by Tourism Australia, climbed 8% and 3.5% to 150,700 and 171,700 respectively.

Singapore, up 12% and Malaysia, up 13%, also performed well.

New Zealand saw a 0.9% rise to 1.21m while the UK sent 634,000, up almost 7%.

But Japan continued to struggle. The 329,000 arrivals represented a decline of 7% on the previous year.

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