Student power lifts visitor spending

Students visiting Australia were the top spending international tourists for the first time in 2010.

Tourism Research Australia‘s 2010 International Visitor Survey shows that the almost $6.5 billion spent by international students accounted for 36.2 per cent of the $17.8 billion in expenditure by inbound tourists last year.

Tourism Taskforce chief executive John Lee said although international students only make up 7.9 per cent of overseas visitors to Australia, “they spend more time – and therefore more money – in Australia than other visitors”.

“Since 2005, spending by international students has grown from two percent to 36.2 per cent of total international tourist expenditure.”

Lee said that 68 percent of Chinese tourist spending in Australia is by education visitors. Also, students accounted for 62 percent of spending by Indonesian visitors, 55 percent of Indian tourist spending, 52 percent from Malaysia and 50 percent from Hong Kong.

“It is vital that visa processing and financial requirements for international students do not unduly reduce Australia’s capacity to cater for this vital market,” Lee added.

TravelMole Tweet: It would be interesting to know how much of this overseas student spending reaches the pockets of tourism operators, or whether it is mostly gobbled up by educational establishments.