AUSTRALIAN INTERNATIONAL VISITORS UP BY 5 PER CENT IN FIRST SIX MONTHS

International visitors to Australia grew by around five per cent in the first six months of 2001, according to new figures released today, Australian Tourist Commission (ATC), Managing Director Ken Boundy said today.

Speaking following the release of the June 2001 Preliminary Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Overseas Arrivals and Departure figures, Mr Boundy said the figures show a steady start for the post Olympic year.

“The figures indicated there were around 2,395,400 international visitors to Australia in the six months to June 2001, an increase of 5.1 per cent compared to the first half of June 2000,” he said. “This is a significant economic boost, with the additional 115,000 visitors generating $349 million.”

"This is a good result for the industry, given the current economic climate and highlights that Australia remains a popular and desirable holiday destination for the world’s travellers.

"At the beginning of the year international visitor arrivals were forecast to grow by around eight percent, however today’s figures indicate that we are not going to reach this growth forecast for 2001, mainly due to the global economic climate which is impacting on consumer confidence.

"The Olympic Games delivered Australia an immediate boost in visitor arrivals in the six months following the Games, however the immediate impact of the Games has now subsided.

“The conditions for the second half of the year are anticipated to remain soft and the industry must focus on continuing to build Australia’s share of the world tourism market. The ATC will increase its focus on aggressive tactical marketing to help drive this growth.

Mr Boundy said that visitor arrivals from most key markets grew steadily for the first six months of the year, including Europe, Asia and the Americas.

"In the six months to June 2001 there were 556,400 visitors from Europe, an increase of six per cent compared to June 2000, including UK (up 10.8 per cent), Germany (up 5.7 per cent) and Netherlands (up 5.2 per cent),” he said.

“It is no surprise that visitor arrivals from the UK soared with a 42.7 per cent increase in visitor arrivals during June 2001 as a result supporters on the Lions Rugby Union tour.

“The figures indicate a mixed result for Asia, with overall visitor arrivals growing by 6.7 per cent for the first half of the year. China was the star performer in the region (up by 51 per cent), Thailand recorded double digit growth (up 11.3 per cent) while Singapore and Malaysia (up 3.7 per cent and 1.9 per cent respectively) recorded small increases in difficult environments.

“Visitor arrivals from the Americas grew by 7.2 per cent in the six months to June 2001, with double digit growth from Canada and Latin America (up 20.2 per cent and 10.4 per cent respectively) and 4.7 per cent growth from the US.

“Visitor arrivals from Japan increased by 1.9 per cent, which is significant given the soft economic conditions and strong competition from short haul destinations. New Zealand recorded a small decline in visitor arrivals (down 1.0 per cent), however remain our number one tourism market.

Mr Boundy said the figures also indicated there were around 5.1 million international visitors to Australia for the twelve months to June 2001, an increase of 8.8 per cent compared to the twelve months to June 2000.

"This is the first time that Australia has welcomed more than 5 million international visitors in a financial year,” he said.

“Visitor arrivals from Australia’s key tourism markets grew strongly during the past fiscal year including New Zealand (up 5.7 per cent), Japan (up three per cent) as well as our long haul markets of the UK (up by 9.5 per cent) and US (up by 12.8 per cent).

“The strongest performing tourism markets for the 12 months to June 2001 were China, with visitor arrivals increasing by 45 per cent as well as Canada with visitor arrivals increasing by 21.6 per cent.