Tourism growth exceeds overall expansion of the Australian economy

Tourism grew at three times the rate of the total Australian economy in the 2014/15 financial year, according to the just released Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Tourism Satellite Account (TSA).

The TSA showed that the Tourism Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 5.3% over the period, contributing a total of $47.5 billion or 3% of GDP.

Over the same period, the Australian economy grew at a slower rate (up 1.6%).

Key findings for 2014/15 include:

• Direct tourism GDP increased 5.3% (or $2.4 billion) to $47.5 billion with tourism’s share of total GDP increased strongly to 3%.
• Domestic tourism GDP increased 4.1% (or $1.4 billion) to $34.2 billion, with domestic tourism responsible for 72% of total direct tourism GDP.
• International tourism GDP increased 8.3% (or $1 billion) to $13.3 billion, with international tourism responsible for 28% of total direct tourism GDP.
• Direct tourism employment increased 6.3% (or 34,300 jobs) to 580,800. At the same time, total employment in Australia increased 1.8%. This resulted in tourism’s share of total employment increasing to 5%.
• More than half (54%) of persons employed in tourism were female. The number of females working in tourism increased 6.1% to 313,700. The number of males employed in tourism increased by 6.5% to 267,100.
• Tourism hours worked were 5.2% higher than in 2013/14.
• Total tourism consumption in Australia increased 4.3% (or $4.9 billion) to $121 billion. Domestic visitor consumption increased 2.7% (or by $2.4 billion) to $90.5 billion and International visitor consumption (or tourism exports) increased 9% to $30.7 billion.
• Tourism exports represent around 9.6% share of total Australian exports. Tourism imports (or consumption made by Australians when travelling overseas) decreased 3.6% to $34.5 billion. As a consequence, the tourism trade deficit halved to $3.8 billion from $7.6 billion in 2013/14.

The TSA is recognised internationally as the benchmark for estimating the economic contribution of tourism in an economy. The Australian TSA is published each year, and provides measures of tourism gross domestic product (GDP), tourism gross value added (GVA), tourism trade, and employment.

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