AusLeisure

A lower Australian dollar and targeted marketing campaigns will boost international visitor growth to an average 6.2% a year over the next three years, according to a new report from Deloitte Access Economics.

Deloitte Access Economics' Tourism and Hotel Market Outlook August 2016 reveals domestic holidays grew around 9% in the last year, adding 3 million additional trips to the domestic holiday market.

While domestic spending figures fell slightly through the year, increased visitor numbers guaranteed overall expenditure to rise.

Led by corporate travel, the tourism sector grew three times faster than the Australian economy in the year to June.

International visitors numbers, including those from the fast-growing Chinese market, have surged 10% in the past year, their fastest growth rate since the mid-1990s.

In a promising sign for Australia's tourism sector, visitor spending has grown by 17.9%, more than double the 7.9% average of the past five years, while domestic tourism numbers have also hit record highs.

The report also shows an accelerating trend for visiting regional holiday hotspots. Growth in travel to regional destinations was almost double (9.1%) the growth rate of holidays to capital cities (5.9%).

Areas such as Northern Queensland and NSW's Tropical Coast attracted more than half a million additional visitors annually, while regions including south west Western Australia and Victoria's High Country enjoyed double digit growth in 2016.

Regional areas of Western Australia grew visitors by 17.3% in the last 12 months, with the south west (22%) taking the lion's share of tourism.

Visitation to NSW (6.2%) also grew, with the state's north coast boasting the greatest number of additional trip-makers (586,000). Other regional areas, such as the New England West region (14%) also enjoyed healthy year-on-year gains.

Late last month, Roy Morgan Research reported that Australians were increasingly favouring recreational holidays in regional NSW.

In Victoria, regional tourism (8.1%) grew steadily over the last year, with Gippsland (26%) and the High Country (22%) witnessing the highest levels of growth.

Tropical North Queensland saw a 3.3% boost in arrivals as a result of recently introduced Singapore flights and additional travellers from Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Deloitte Access Economics partner Lachlan Smirl said while the tourism sector had been experiencing a resurgence since the end of the mining boom, it had found another gear in the past six months.

Smirl explained “what is remarkable about the tourism growth we are observing is that it is being achieved against a relatively soft economic backdrop – both internationally and here in Australia," "The Australian dollar remains relatively favourable and the sustained growth of the middle class in Asia continues to buoy international travel. But as income growth in China grows, travel to Australia is accelerating."

Tourism Australia Managing Director John O'Sullivan said the Deloitte report backed up recent arrivals and spending data and showed the industry was outperforming the rest of the economy.

He stated “we've been seeing double digit growth in both international arrivals and spending for some time now, and the feedback we're getting from tourism operators in Australia and our trade and distribution partners overseas is very upbeat.”

Images: Chinese visitors at Victoria's 12 Apostles (top) and Scenic World Blue Mountains (below).

Released twice a year, against the backdrop of Deloitte Access Economics’ latest economic forecasts, Deloitte’s Tourism and Hotel Market Outlook provides projections for domestic and international tourism over the next three years.

Click here for more information.

Images: Asian visitors meet a kangaroo. (top) and Scenic World Blue Mountains (below).

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