Australia has a mixed portfolio of key markets which are continuing to change with the ebb and flow of world economic fortunes.
Balancing the complexity and volatility of Australia’s key tourism markets over the next 10 years will be the key to our long term growth and sustainability, according to the forecast outlined in the latest Tourism Forecasting Committee (TFC) report.
ATEC Managing Director, Felicia Mariani says the current forecasts indicate growth in both domestic and inbound markets with significant growth coming out of Asia.
“Eastern markets will have to become a particular focus for the inbound sector over the coming 10 year period,” Ms Mariani said.
“It is encouraging to see that today’s forecast indicates growth in both domestic and inbound tourism expenditure which is projected to increase over the next two years. After several years of serious decline, this is a promising sign for our industry – but there are still challenges ahead.
“Of particular note for our sector is total inbound expenditure is set to reach nearly $30 billion by 2013-14, breaking the $25 billion barrier we have haulted at for the past two years.
“Most importantly, the TFC has forecasted continued growth in domestic travel. Australians travelling at home is the bread and butter of the tourism sector in this country and international visitation is always the ‘icing on the cake’ – a robust domestic tourism market is essential to ensure the viability of our tourism offering.
“If we are going to have memorable tourism experiences to share with our international visitors, we need a strong and viable domestic market to sustain these businesses year on year.“
Ms Mariani said the forecast showed Australia has a mixed portfolio of key markets which are continuing to change with the ebb and flow of world economic fortunes.
“In recent months, we have seen consistent improvement in some of our important traditional markets of the West, including the USA and Japan.
“According to these latest TFC projections, there is evidence that this trend will continue over the next two years. This improved performance is critical for many of our operators right across Australia who rely heavily on visitation from these Western markets as a key component of their inbound visitation.
“Our new and emerging markets are quite clearly running well ahead of the pack and Australia must capitalise on the experience we have already gained in operating in the Singapore, Malaysian and Hong Kong markets over many years.
“Right here, right now, we are sitting on 6 million visitor arrivals annually and this is expected to grow to around 6.3 million in just two years with Asian markets contributing a 45% share of this growth.
“The importance of the Asian Century to Australia is irrefutable. This is not just about Australia being ‘China Ready’; we need to be ‘Asia Ready’ first and foremost.”
Ms Mariani said the opportunities of new and emerging markets also came with many challenges and complexities.
“Being ‘Asia Ready’ goes well beyond the basics of cultural awareness – that’s cost of entry in dealing with these specialised markets.
“To be truly successful, we to need understand the complexities of connecting our products with the distribution channels in Asia; we need to ensure that we are connecting with the right markets for the products we have to offer; and we need to prove our offerings are competitive with the experiences these visitors are seeking .
“Most importantly we need to ensure access to Australia from these key growth markets surpassess accessibility to other destinations. This is particularly important for the indpendent traveller as opposed to the group traveller.
“While China remains central to this growth, we must build the capacity of our industry to engage fully with all the opportunities offered by all the Asian markets.”
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
