Year of the Dragon off to good start

Wednesday, 06 Mar, 2012 0

International arrivals into Australia jumped 4.8% in January, thanks to Asian visitors coming to Australia to celebrate Lunar New Year, according to peak industry body, Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF).

The ABS’s Overseas Arrivals and Departures show arrivals from China rose 27.4% with solid rises from Hong Kong (+22.0%), Taiwan (+19.1%) and Indonesia (+13.7 %).

TTF chief executive John Lee said, “China represents a massive opportunity for us, which is why Tourism Australia is rightly focusing on lifting its presence in more Chinese cities.

“It is critical we continue to build on that momentum and capitalise on the competitive advantage of our proximity to Asia.

“However, China’s potential is also recognised by our competitors, who are making substantial investments to attract Chinese tourists.

“The most recent annual figures show more than one million Chinese travelled to the United States – up 36.2% on the previous year, compared to annual growth of 17.1% to Australia.

“While smaller numbers of Chinese are travelling to the UK and Canada, they are also seeing faster growth than Australia, at 32% and 24.4% respectively.

“These figures clearly demonstrate the urgency of increasing the support for Tourism Australia’s activities in China and better leveraging the presence of other Australian departments and agencies in China to promote Australia as a destination for business, leisure, investment and study.”

Outbound travel by Australians rose 4.7% in January, with the annual growth slowing to 9.1%. Departures to Thailand rose 7,000 (up 17.9%), the US up 5,500 (11.0%) and Vietnam up 2,700 (12.3%).

below social share icons

Ian Jarrett

Some describe it as a natural playground. Some say, it’s simply unique as it offers a great array of travel...

NSW, Australia Welcome to New South Wales – a place to feel free, feel alive, feel new. As the official...

The State of Michigan is blessed with the riches of unspoiled nature: the nation’s longest freshwater coastline, lakes that feel like...

Via Croatia is a concierge-type, full-service luxury DMC working exclusively with travel agents and luxury tour operators. With 20 years...

Family-owned Olympic Holidays has been arranging holidays to Greece, the Greek islands and Cyprus for more than half century. The company is unrivalled...

Destination British Columbia (Destination BC) is a Provincially funded, industry-led Crown corporation that supports a strong and competitive future for BC’s...

Princess Hotels & Resorts is a hotel chain specialising in holiday and urban hotels located in first class tourist destinations,...

Located in the heart of the Northeast and within easy driving distance of a third of the population of the...

We are a small-group adventure travel operator offering more than 750 tours in 100 countries, on all seven continents. Our...

Travel Outlook, the premier hotel call center™ Travel Outlook is an innovative, custom off-site central reservations office (CRO) service that...

The city has been the vibrant heart of Japan for over 400 years, and is a crossroads where tradition meets...

If you’re thinking of cruising, there’s a very good chance you’re considering a Carnival cruise. Growing since our founding in...

Here at Elegant Resorts, luxury travel is in our DNA. True pioneers in the industry, we were the first specialist...

Intrepid Travel is a world leader in sustainable experience-rich travel that has been taking travellers to discover the world’s most amazing places...