The Australian Tourism Industry In A Nutshell
Tourism is big business Down Under. Despite the great numbers, current economic factors may allow smaller growth in the industry in the next few years
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The Australian Tourism Industry In A Nutshell
Bobby Castro is the online editor at the Australia Forum, where he has published a number of articles about Australia immigration news and many other topics.
In the past few years, the tourism industry of Australia has become a major revenue generator for the economy. Based on its 2011 Fiscal Report, the value of the industry was nearly Aus$35 billion which is nearly three percent of the Gross Domestic Product of the country.
This total revenue for 2011 was generated despite the many natural disasters as well as global economic issues. The year reported the highest number of arrivals in the country nearly six million tourists obtaining a tourist visa or nearly 588 extra visitors per day.
The industry is not just about the arrivals, but the individuals working in the industry as well. The tourism sector employed 513, 700 individuals where nearly 44% were part time employees. A further bonus to the economy is its export earnings accounting for nearly 8.0% of the total for the country.
There are some bad omens looming in the horizon though despite these great numbers. The first being the new emerging tourism markets may eventually eat up the share of the global tourism market that Australia enjoyed the previous year. A second issues is that the net tourism would grow smaller by the year as 30.2 percent of the local population would go on an overseas trip in 2011 and is expected to rise by fifty percent by 2016.
A third issue is the continued strength of the Australian dollar, which resulted in 7.4 million short term residency departures from the country. This is an increase from the previous year’s 9.9 percent and domestic tourism also had marginal returns, reporting just half of the international tourism expenditures, where local consumption was only 2.1% and international consumption was at 4.4%.
Many industry experts have advocated a two pronged approach, which is marketing to both local and international tourists alike. Highlighting the natural beauty and splendour of the country provides Australia a natural competitive advantage compared to other destinations from all over the world. The problem is, the continued global economic recession has promoted “staycations”, the high Australian dollar value means an expensive vacation and cheap airfare offers have made both local and international tourists choose other locations rather than going Down Under.
Another way to promote tourism is highlighting the tourist with work privilege visa. This would prove attractive to foreign travelers to stay in the country and eventually be absorbed in the economy. As for local tourists, continued promotion of local sites would be key to make the Australian tourism industry as great as the economic leaps and bounds the country is now experiencing.
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