Yesterday’s overseas short-term arrivals and departures figures for August contained some welcome news for the tourism industry, with the number of inbound tourists rising, whereas the number of Australians holidaying overseas fell marginally.
The number of short-term visitor arrivals rose by a seasonally-adjusted 2.3% in August, whereas short-term resident departures fell by 0.1% to be just off the record high set last month. However, the ratio of annual arrivals to departures fell marginally to 74.7% from 74.8% in July, and is now at the lowest level since the mid-1980s (see next chart).
In the year to August 2013, the number of short-term visitor arrivals and resident departures also set new records – up 5.2% and 8.2% respectively (see next chart).
A record 6.36 million inbound tourists arrived in Australia over the year – a 37% increase on a decade ago. However, the number of Australians holidaying overseas also hit a record 8.52 million departures – a 160% increase on 10 years ago.
The key bogan hotspot of South East Asia (particularly Indonesia and Thailand) remains Australia’s favourite holiday destination, receiving a near record 223,300 visitors in August 2013, or 30.3% of Australia’s total departures. This was followed by Oceania (21%), the Americas (14%), North West Europe (11%), and North East Asia (10%):
By contrast, the most foreign visitors to Australia came from NE Asia (mostly China), which accounted for 24% of arrivals in August 2013, with a record 712,500 tourists visiting from China in the past year. Notice also the big surge and collapse in North-West European tourists on the back of the arrival and departure of rugby fans from the UK for the British and Irish Lions series earlier in the year:
Looking ahead, the expected devaluation of the Australian Dollar should help stem the flow of outbound tourists, whilst also attracting more inbound tourism from abroad.
