Australia Posted Record Highs in International Visitors in 2015

Australia’s visitor economy continues to grow from strength to strength with the latest ABS figures confirming that 2015 was another record breaking year for overseas arrivals said the Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF).

The latest ABS Overseas Arrivals figures released today confirm that 7.4 million people travelled to Australia last year – up 8.2 per cent on the previous year.

“There are very few industry sectors in Australia at the moment that can claim to be seeing consecutive years of strong growth as we can say about tourism,” said Margy Osmond, TTF CEO.

“We are continuing to see massive growth in the China market which has recorded 21.9 per cent growth in 2015 compared to the previous year.

“This is what happens when you invest in the tourism sector – you see a strong uptick in visitor numbers and that means more Australian jobs and more economic activity in our cities and regional communities.

“Tourism is a booming industry for Australia and it’s one of the key pillars of our future economic success – we need a stronger partnership between government and industry that puts tourism at the heart of Australia’s future economic growth strategy to help fill the post-mining boom void.

 “We need to see more investment in Australia’s tourism industry by Federal, State and Territory Governments – they are all making tough financial decisions in their upcoming budgets but the evidence shows that investing delivers a strong long-term financial return.”