According to Tourism Research Australia (TRA), international visitors spent a record $32.5bn ($23.7bn) in the year ending March 2015 – a 10% rise, or A$2.9bn ($2.12bn) more than in the year ending March 2014.

 

TRA also reports strong growth of 8% in the number of visitors aged 15 years and over and 7% for nights spent in Australia. China led the growth across the top five markets with the total Chinese visitor trip spend up 25% to A$6.4bn ($4.6bn).

 

China now accounts for 20% of all trip spend by international visitors to Australia – up from 7% ten years ago. Visitor numbers and nights from China have also increased significantly, both up 19% to 829,000 and 36m nights respectively.

 

 

Meanwhile, visitor numbers and spend were also up for most other key markets. US visitors grew by 10% to 535,000 with spending up 14% to A$2.9bn. They were followed by New Zealand plus 5% to 1.1m visitors and spend up 7% to A$2.5bn; and Singapore up 6% to 325,000 and spend up 8% to A$1.2bn.

 

TRA reports that results for the UK remained soft, however, with both visitors (631,000) and spend (A$3.5 billion) unchanged. Across all markets, the largest growth occurred for India. These numbers were boosted by the ICC Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand during February and March 2015.

 

 

The Indian trip spend was up 35% to A$959m and visitor numbers grew by 25% to 202,000 as the number of nights stayed grew 30% to 12m. TRA says that visitors from India have increased by 78% since 2010, second only to China with 137% growth for the same period. The increase for all other countries combined was 16%.

 

Meanwhile, the increase in visitor numbers during the year ending March 2015 continued to be led by leisure travel. Those visiting friends and relatives increased by 10% to 1.8m with their total trip spend up by 13% to A$5.4bn and holiday visitors grew by 7% to 2.9m, with the total trip spend for holiday visitors up by 7% to A$12.7bn.