World Business

Int'l tourists to Australia on the rise

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-07 17:38

SYDNEY: New figures revealed on Wednesday that the number of international tourists to Australia has risen by more than five percent.

In January and February there were just over one million international visitors to Australia, compared with a little more than 962,000 in the same period last year, an increase of 5.4 percent.

Analysis of the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics by the Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF) highlights notable trends including increases of 8.9 percent in Chinese tourists and 8.3 percent increase in US visitors.

TTF said it signals the start of a recovery for international tourists to Australia, with the sector heading back to normal.

Evan Hall from TTF said there have been solid increases from the US largely due to extra flight services, with continuing growth out of China.

"China is now our third biggest market, and will probably overtake the United States in a couple of years," he said.

"And interestingly, while not a great outcome, Japanese visitors have stopped declining, so we're hoping that has bottomed out and we're seeing the start of the turnaround."

Visitors from Japan edged up 1.7 percent, while visitors from Ireland fell by 7.6 percent, Hong Kong by 1.4 percent, and the UK by 1.3 percent.

"The key markets for us are New Zealand, the UK, China, the US and Japan and that's what will make or break the tourism economy in Australia."