More people are choosing to holiday in Australia.
More people are taking a holiday in Australia as the world slowly starts to recover from the global recession.
The latest International Visitor Survey by the Tourism & Transport Forum show that the number of visitors to Australia were up by 6% from January to March this year compared with last year.
This slight rise in visitor numbers is heartening for the tourist industry which suffered as a result of people travelling less and holidaying closer to home. Other factors such as budget airlines offering cheap flights to Australia also helped to boost the tourist industry.
Business travel to Australia has also recovered slightly, with the number of people travelling to Australia on business up by 9.7% this quarter from the same period last year.
However whilst all these visitors may be travelling to Australia on holiday, they aren’t necessarily spending. In fact spending fell by 3.9% per person on an average daily spend. That’s all down to a strong Australian dollar against other weak currencies according to TTF executive director Brett Gale. “That pushed up the Australian dollar, which made Australian exports more expensive, which in tourism terms, reduced the buying power of international visitors.”
It is hoped that the new campaign by Tourism Australia will boost visitor numbers even further. The launch of the new iPhone application OzPlanner, will also help making travelling to Australia easier as users can browse through recommended journeys or make their own itineraries, with access to tens of thousands of tourism products and services in Australia.
So far Tourism Australia’s ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’ campaign has attracted over 29,000 entries with the winning entry being voted on this month by members of the public. Let’s hope that it not only encourages visitors to holiday in Australia but also to spend a little too!
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