Visitors to Australia spent a total of A$3.8bn ($2.8bn) on shopping (+7%) during the year ending September 2016, plus a record A$38.8bn ($28.8bn) on absolute total expenditure during the same period, according to Tourism Research Australia (TRA).

This was effectively 11% or A$4bn ($2.9bn) more than in the previous comparative period, as the number of visitors (+15 years and above) reached 7.4m – an impressive rise of 766,000 (11%) as overnight stays (nights) grew by 4% to 251m.

 

 

15 VISITOR MARKETS BREAK ALL RECORDS
Tourism Research Australia (TRA) reports ‘strong growth’ in the majority of Australia’s major tourist source markets, with 15 out of 20 recording new record visitor numbers.

These included New Zealand, China, the US, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Germany, Scandinavia and Switzerland, France, Canada and Thailand.

In addition, the tourism body says that China, the US, Korea and Japan were major contributors to the increase in spend for the year, contributing an extra A$2.7bn ($2bn) over the year (or 68% of the total increase).

BREAKDOWN BY TOURISM SEGMENT
TRA adds that the holiday and education categories of visitors underpinned the strong growth for the year with both segments together accounting for 67% of the total trip spend by international visitors to Australia.

China, the US, Japan, Korea and the UK were the key contributors to growth in terms of the holiday category, while China contributed greatly to growth in the education visitor sector.

By contrast, travel for the purpose of visiting friends and relatives was reported as flat – down 1% to 1.9m visitors, while nights stayed fell 2% to 54.5m and the spend total remained unchanged at A$5.8bn ($4.3bn). In addition, those visitors arrriving for business purposes remained ‘steady’ at 808,000.

The growth in visitors arriving for holiday was reflected in strong increases in nights in hotels, motels and resorts, increasing by 14% to 28.7m. Nights in guest houses and bed and breakfast accommodation were up 11% to 1.2m.

 

SOURCE: TOURISM RESEACH AUSTRALIA. (Note: dollar references in this table are all Australian dollars).