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Australia is likely to achieve a new record of over 6.5 million international arrivals in 2012.
CANBERRA – The latest Overseas Arrivals and Departures figures, released on Monday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), showed that visitors from China grew by 14 percent in November 2012, buoyed by the additional seat capacity created by the introduction of direct flights from Shanghai to Cairns.
Australia’s overseas arrivals have continued to grow strongly through 2012, recording almost seven percent growth in November 2012 to reach 6.1 million visitors in the 12 months to November 2012.
Minister for Tourism Martin Ferguson said in a statement the increased capacity was evidence of the strength of the Australian market.
“The increase in arrivals will assist industry meet the Tourism 2020 goal of 140 billion Australian dollars (almost 147.45 billion U.S. dollars) in overnight expenditure,” he said. “The Australian Government is working with the states and territories to reduce red tape and implement regulatory reform to assist in building the 40,000 new accommodation rooms that will be needed by 2020.”
In 2011, 5.87 million visitors arrived for a short-term stay to Australia, and another 620,200 overseas travellers came on permanent and long-term arrivals according to Australian statistics. Top markets were in 2011 New Zealand (1.17 million), the UK (0.61 million), China (0.54 million), the USA (0.46 million) and Japan (0.33 million).
(Source: Xinhua)
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
