Deloitte survey confirms rise in international visitors to Australia

Deloitte Access Economics’ latest Tourism and Hotel Market Outlook report shows an 8.2% visitation increase in international visitors to Australia in the year ending May 2014.

Citing improved economic conditions in the USA and UK as contributing to the strongest growth in international arrivals to Australia in nine years, the report contains key developments across the Australian tourism and hospitality sectors and projections on both domestic and international tourism over the next three years.

According to Deloitte’s report both domestic and international visitor nights grew slightly, showing a preference for shorter trips.

While growth in domestic overnight travel continued to grow, reporting a 4% increase, the majority of this was driven by business travel as opposed to leisure as seen in previous quarters, with business travel seeing a 6.3% increase.

However, while domestic travel didn’t see the momentum it experienced mid-2013, Australians’ love of overseas leisure travel combined with the resilience of the Australian dollar contributed to a growth of nearly 8% in international holiday travel.

Domestic tourism experienced its biggest growth in Western Australia while Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales led the way in international visitation.

Overall international visitor arrivals were led by a 9.4% increase in leisure travel, while both leisure and overall travel recorded its fastest growth in nearly a decade.

This unprecedented growth was driven by arrivals from Asia, with Chinese travellers leading the way at a growth of 11.9%, while an increase in low-cost carrier capacity saw numbers in leisure travellers from Malaysia and Singapore surge by 20.4% and 16%% respectively.

Meanwhile, visitors from the US grew 9.1%, its fastest yearly growth since March 2010, while UK arrivals showed a major turnaround with an 11.9% increase, after having dropped by nearly 20% over the previous six years.

According to the report, Deloitte forecasts international arrivals will grow by 5.1% and international visitor nights by 5.2% over the next three years, as the Aussie dollar eases and economic growth in key markets continues to improve and stabilise, while domestic travel is expected to grow by an average of 2% per year, with leisure travel increasing.

Click here for more information on professional service firm Deloitte’s twice annual Tourism and Hotel Market Outlook report.

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