ATEC: Forecast places tourism at the forefront of Australian exports

The ten year outlook for Australia’s tourism industry paints a highly positive future, with the export market contributing the largest growth at 5.9% to the overall industry’s success.

ATEC Managing Director, Peter Shelley, said the National Tourism Forecasts to 2024-25, released by Tourism Research Australia, were in line with on the ground industry sentiment.

“This report shows there is a projected growth across all our key international travel markets which is above the global growth trend, putting Australia in a great position to maximise our tourism export success,” Mr Shelley said.

“Over the past five years the tourism export industry has worked hard to consolidate its position as a destination offering quality experiences which cater for the demands of both our traditional markets and the needs of emerging markets, particularly in Asia."

“This has put us in the box seat to make the most of these strengthening economies and their demand for international travel.”

Mr Shelley said improvements in the economic outlook internationally, coupled with the weaker dollar, will make Australia an even more attractive destination provided we continue to invest in growth.

“The projections suggest Australia’s export tourism earnings will grow at an average of 3.8% over the ten year period, taking total expenditure to more than $48 billion by 2024-25, and we need to facilitate this growth by ensuring Tourism Australia has adequate marketing resources to drive destination awareness, intention to travel and conversion within our target markets."

“Driving awareness of Australia as a destination and converting this to travel is a vital element of success when we are competing against almost 200 other international travel destinations."

“Our message is to ensure Government and industry work in partnership to maximise our international tourism potential by removing impediments like onerous and expensive visa applications and travel taxes and charges which are higher in Australia than in competing destinations."

“Overall we have a fantastic opportunity and a very bright future with strong engagement in the markets which are showing the greatest potential for growth so our industry should be confident in its ability to convert these figures into reality.”

sourced:traveldailynews.asia