Australian tourism climbed to record levels over the 2014/15 financial year, with the industry well “on track” to hit ambitious 2020 targets.
Tourism Research Australia’s State of the Industry 2015 report reported inbound arrivals growth of 6.6% to a record 6.6 million arrivals for the year.
New Zealand remained the number one international market, with 1.2 million inbound tourists. However, China and India demonstrated the most growth up 2.17% and 19.9% respectively.
Overall international tourism expenditure hit a “new high” of $33.4 billion in 2014/15 – up 10%.
Minister for tourism senator Richard Colbeck described it as “the strongest expenditure recorded for a financial year since the Sydney Olympic Games.”
“Since the Government identified Tourism as one the five National Investment Priorities, we have facilitated increased tourism infrastructure investment, built focused international marketing and embarked on visa reforms to make it easier for international tourists to come to Australia,” senator Colbeck said.
Meanwhile, domestic tourism also appears to be “thriving” with 83.2 million overnight trips recorded for the 12 month period – the highest on record.
Overnight visitor expenditure rose 4% to $55.4 billion while total overnight expenditure up 6.3% to $88.8 billion.
“This report provides further evidence that we are on track to reach the 2020 target of increasing overnight expenditure to between $115 billion and $140 billion by the year 2020.”
However, although these figures put 2020 targets within the industry’s sights, senator Colbeck warned there is “no room” for complacency.
He highlighted labour and skills shortages, infrastructure and visa reform as challenges which must be tackled to ensure it is achieved.
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