Developing indigenous and eco tourism product and experiences are the major keys to increasing international visitor growth over the next decade according to the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC).
Matthew Hingerty, Managing Director of ATEC, was commenting on the release of the latest Tourism Forecasting Committee (TFC) figures predicting 8.8 million international visitors would come to Australia annually by 2016, an increase of 4.9%, with byomparison, Australians travelling overseas predicted to increase by an average 5.2%to 8.1 million trips.
“The gap between the number of international tourists coming to Australia and the number of Australians heading overseas is continuing to close which means the true potential for growth lies in positioning Australia at the top of more foreign travellers’ ‘must visit’ destination list,” said Hingerty.
“It is crucial however that as air capacity into Australia increases we don’t just have a ‘more bums on seats’ attitude that means once they step off the plane we don’t have enough places for them to stay and visit.”
“If we are to encourage more visitors to come, and more importantly, to come back, we need to have the product and experiences they are looking for – not just in the traditional tourist destinations, but in regional Australia.”
Hingerty said if numbers were to reach the predicted nine million mark up from the current 5.5 million annually, the industry would not be able to service them without investment in new accommodation, product and experiences.”
Report by The Mole
