Australia Sees Strong Asian Tourist Arrivals.

Date: 7 March 2013

Australia Sees Strong Asian Tourist Arrivals.

CANBERRA, March 7 (Bernama) - Australia's overseas arrivals have recorded a 4.1 percent increase in the last 12 months, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a release by the Ministry of Tourism Thursday. The first Overseas Arrivals and Departures figures for 2013, released Thursday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, showed growth of inbound arrivals from many major markets in the month of January.

Despite a decline in arrivals from Asian markets such as China, Singapore and Malaysia during January 2013 -- due to Chinese New Year falling in February this year - these markets grew strongly in the 12 months to January 2013, up 8.8 percent, 6.8 percent and 8.5 percent respectively.

Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson, said the figures highlighted the importance of the government's allocation of A$48.5 million Australian dollars (US$49.5 million) to the Asia Marketing Fund and Tourism Australia's long term marketing campaign "There's Nothing Like Australia."

"Continued annualized growth of overseas visitor arrivals gives the Australian tourism industry cause for optimism with strong growth continuing from Asian markets," Ferguson said. "It is likely that we will see strong solid growth in February 2013 driven by the Chinese New Year period and importantly, there are signs of continued improvement from large traditional markets such as the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the U.S."

Visitors from the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States, were up 1.4 percent, 9.5 percent and 8.5 percent respectively in January 2013. Visitors from other Asian markets including Indonesia and India continued to record positive growth, up 3.6 percent and 4.6 percent respectively in January 2013.

Outbound departures continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace. The outbound sector increased by 4.2 percent in January 2013, almost half the rate of the five year average of 8 percent.

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