AUSTRALIAN AIRLINES A BOOST TO TOURISM

The announcement today by Australian Airlines to commence services next year from six Asian cities is welcome news for both Australia's and Asia's tourism industries, Australian Tourist Commission (ATC) Executive General Manager, Eastern Hemisphere Richard Beere said.

"Air access is the key to tourism growth and the additional services will open up new destinations and greater program development opportunities - both vital elements to the future of our industry," he said.

"The launch of the new leisure carrier will increase direct services and ports at a critical time for Australian tourism and will assist the development of key emerging markets.

"Australia's inbound tourism industry is experiencing difficult times with a drop in international visitors as a result of recent events. However, tourism markets in Asia and Japan are already showing some signs of recovery and the Australian Airline services next year will definitely assist in this effort."

The new airline, a single class, full service leisure carrier will be headquartered in Sydney with its first operational base located in Cairns.

Initial services will include non-stop return flights from Cairns to Osaka, Nagoya, Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong and Fukuoka, with connecting flights between Cairns and the Gold Coast offered six times a week.

"Cairns will be a major beneficiary of the new services, however there will be significant flow-on effects for tourism across the country," Mr Beere said, adding that Australian Airlines had indicated they will eventually fly to every Australian mainland capital including Perth and Darwin.

"The new Australian Airline services will provide the ATC and the industry with opportunities to develop new marketing initiatives in the region, and add to the existing range of marketing programs already underway."

"Increased repeat visitation rates across the more mature Asian markets has created a growing number of travellers looking for short break single destination vacations. The new services will assist development of this important segment."

In October, the ATC in conjunction with the local travel industry launched a AU$7.2 million dollar marketing campaign designed to stimulate travel to Australia from six Asian markets including Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.

Preliminary arrival data indicates that visitors from North East and South & South East Asia increased 9.7 percent to 1,308,600 for the year ending October 2001, despite a decrease of 7.9 percent in the same markets for the month of October. Meanwhile, Japanese arrivals for the year ending October 2001 increased four percent to 724,000 against a decline of 24.9 percent to 41,100 for the month of October.