Australia's tourism appeal booming

THE past year has been remarkably good for Australian tourism, despite the strong Aussie dollar, natural disasters at home and global economic woes.

A tourism survey for the June quarter showed arrivals were up by three per cent, spending was up four per cent and there was an increase of four per cent in the number of nights spent.

"Asian visitors, particularly those from China, spend significant amounts of money during their visit to Australia and the tourism industry must harness this spend to its advantage," Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) boss Felicia Mariani said today.

Tourism Australia chief Andrew McEvoy said despite regular reports of doom and gloom, 2011 has been a remarkably good year so far.

"In the near world, the Asia Pacific region continues to deliver strong growth, led by China, Malaysia, India, Singapore, Indonesia and New Zealand."

He added the longer haul UK, Euro Zone and US markets, still in the grip of ongoing financial difficulties, had small declines.

Peak national body, the Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF) said rises in spending in Australia helped offset the impact of the Queensland floods and earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand.

Federal Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson said the figures were encouraging, considering global economic trends and pressures from the high dollar.

But he noted: "Domestic tourism makes up three quarters of the sector and some parts of Australia are still doing it tough".

He urged Australians to resist the temptation of cheap overseas trips and holiday at home.

Ms Mariani said it was pleasing to see visitors were spending time in regional areas with 32 per cent travelling outside major cities, 51 per cent of those visiting NSW, 36 per cent going to Queensland and 32 per cent to Victoria.

"Backpacker numbers have held steady at around 583,000 to the year ending June 2011 but their value continues to be under acknowledged," she said.

"They travel widely through regional parts of Australia, they often work here, encourage family and friends to visit, stay nearly three times as long as holidaymakers and spend almost as much per day."

But TTF boss John Lee said there were signs of weakness in key areas including education.

Spending by education visitors rose just 0.2 per cent for the quarter but Lee says the visitors are important because of the longer time they stay in the country.

The survey was carried out by Tourism Research Australia.

Source - heraldsun.com.au