Australia soars on Asian tourists

Asia’s outbound travel boom is a shot in the arm for Australia’s tourism industry that should drive earnings to between A$115 billion to A$140 billion by 2020, Tourism Australia reports.
Research presented at a tourism conference in Canberra Tuesday and previewed in the Australian, showed tourism was worth A$80 billion and in a decade its value will rise to A$97 billion. In 2010 it was worth A$69 billion.
That’s the vision presented by Tourism Australia and most of its hopes are firmly placed in Asian markets particularly China.
The new data, from Tourism Research Australia, shows that in the year to June, domestic travel spending grew by 3.4% to A$51 billion.
Overseas travellers spent A$28 billion, up 5.9%.
Australians are now taking about nine times more trips in their home country than they are overseas.
And for overseas visitors despite the so-called “tyranny of distance”, time and costs, Australia remains one of the world’s most desirable destinations.
By the end of 2013, Tourism Australia estimates it has spent A$200 million marketing Australia to the world, with a particular focus on the fast growing Asian market which could be worth A$20 billion to Australia’s economy by 2020.
The tourism body, which last year signed a five year partnership with Austrade, has also shifted its focus to include encouraging developers to invest in tourism ventures.
This includes plans by Singaporean investor M&L Hospitality to invest A$160 million to build an extra 231rooms at the Four Points by Sheraton Sydney at Darling Harbour, as well as plans by the Hong Kong-based Chang Yuang Group to invest A$10 million in new holiday villas.

Sourced: ttrweekly