TOURISM INDUSTRY FACTS & FIGURES WORLDWIDE

Australian tourism continues to deliver, despite the many challenges, both in Australia and abroad.

Total tourism expenditure in Australia increased 5.0 per cent in nominal terms in 2011, a good result given the combined challenges of weak economic conditions outside Asia, and the strong Australian dollar. A series of events also hurt the industry, particularly early in 2011, including the Queensland floods, Cyclone Yasi and the Japanese tsunami.

Following a rise of 5.0 per cent in 2010, total visitor arrivals to Australia were steady in 2011. Australia’s most valuable inbound tourism market, China, again delivered strong growth of 19.4 per cent in 2011 in terms of arrivals, and 15.0 per cent growth in tourism exports.

More growth is on the horizon. The Tourism Forecasting Committee expects total visitor consumption to reach $102 billion in 2012–13, with international arrivals to reach over six million.

Domestic tourism expenditure continues to increase, but a competitive global market, a robust economy, and a strong Australian dollar means more Australians are choosing to holiday overseas.

This booklet gives a snapshot of one of Australia’s most important industries, one that adds $35 billion to our gross domestic product, accounts for eight per cent of our total exports, and directly employs just over half a million Australians.

In a fiercely competitive global marketplace, the Australian tourism industry has to work smarter than ever to deliver an internationally competitive product.

Our updated policy framework, Tourism 2020, is helping industry make this transition by providing the tools it needs to take advantage of the opportunities that Asia presents.

Under Tourism 2020, the Australian Government is working with industry and state and territory governments to assist the industry to achieve its potential of $140 billion in overnight spend by 2020.

Tourism 2020 focuses on:

• growing demand from Asia

• building competitive digital capability

• encouraging investment and implement regulatory reform

• ensuring the tourism transport environment supports growth

• increasing supply of labour, skills, and Indigenous participation

• building industry resilience, productivity and quality. 

Global visitor arrivals, 2012

Rank	Country	Arrivals (million)	Change on 2010(a) (%)	Share of global arrivals (%)
1	France	79.5	3.1	8.1%
2	United States of America	62.3	4.2	6.3%
3	China	57.6	3.4	5.9%
4	Spain	56.7	7.6	5.8%
5	Italy	46.1	5.7	4.7%
6	Turkey	29.3	8.5	3.0%
7	United Kingdom	29.2	3.2	3.0%
8	Germany	28.4	5.6	2.9%
9	Malaysia	24.7	0.4	2.5%
10	Mexico	23.4	4.9	2.4%
11	Austria	23.0	4.5	2.3%
12	Russia	22.7	11.8	2.3%
13	Hong Kong	22.3	10.9	2.3%
14	Ukraine	21.4	0.9	2.2%
15	Thailand	19.1	20.1	1.9%

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) noted that the global tourism industry continues to show its resilience in dealing with the many sharply negative shocks the industry has faced since 2000, including:

• September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001

• SARS in 2003

• Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and H1N1 pandemic in 2009

• Icelandic volcanic eruptions in 2010

• Japanese tsunami and nuclear plant meltdown in 2011.

The UNWTO estimates that global arrivals increased by 4.6% in 2011, and are forecast to increase by a further 3% to 4% in 2012. If this is realised, international arrivals worldwide would be over 1.0 billion this year.

Earlier, the GFC in 2009 led to a decrease in global international travel of around 3.9%, before rebounding strongly by 6.4% in 2010.

The GFC hit harder on global tourism receipts (spending), which declined 9.4% in 2009, but made a partial recovery in 2010 (increasing by 8.7%). Preliminary estimates indicate that global receipts will be strongly higher in 2011 (up 11.1%), to be well above pre-GFC levels.