Australian Tourism Breaks Olympic Record with over 5 Million Visitors in 2003/04

New figures released Friday confirm that Australia received a record 5.1 million overseas tourists during the last financial year, delivering the best ever financial year result for Australian tourism.

The latest figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate there were 5,057,200 overseas visitors to Australia during the 2003/04 financial year, a rise of 9 per cent compared to the 2002/03 financial year. This result breaks the previous record of 5.031 million visitors set in 2000/01, when tourism to Australia was boosted by the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Tourism Australia Acting Managing Director, Ken Boundy, said the latest figures highlighted the importance of international tourism marketing to ensure a strong recovery for Australian tourism.

"The industry has produced a record result off the back of one of the most challenging periods for tourism to Australia," Mr Boundy said. "This remarkable recovery highlights Australia's resilience as a destination and the importance of our post-SARS marketing efforts internationally to ensure travellers continue to travel to and experience Australia.

"During 2003/04 Australia received around 400,000 more international visitors than the previous year, which equals around $1 billion in export earnings for Australia's economy.

"Australia's core tourism markets delivered much of the growth during 2003/04, with arrivals from New Zealand up by 17 per cent, the United Kingdom up 7 per cent, Japan up 4 per cent and the United States up 2 per cent.

"Additional funding for tourism marketing provided by the Tourism White Paper has assisted Australia's recovery efforts and with more money being committed to international marketing we can boost our programs to target travellers overseas."

For the six months to June 2004 the number of international visitors to Australia has grown to 2.4 million.

Mr Boundy said continued arrivals growth in the six months to June provided good reasons for the industry to be cautiously optimistic about the outlook for the remainder of the year.

"In the first six months of this year tourist numbers have grown by 15 per cent compared to the previous year," Mr Boundy said.

"Key markets such as New Zealand and Japan have been particularly bullish, with increases of 25 per cent and 21 per cent respectively during the six months to the end of June.

"The Asian travel markets continue to produce strong results, with arrivals from China up 51 per cent, Hong Kong up 5 per cent, Korea up 9 per cent, India up 38 per cent and Malaysia up 33 per cent in the first six months of 2004.

"A number of the European markets performed well for the first half of the 2004 calendar year, with arrivals from the United Kingdom up 4 per cent, Germany up 5 per cent, Italy up16 per cent, and France up 30 per cent.

"Tourism from the United States continues to grow with arrivals up by 4 per cent in the first half of 2004. The roll out of new marketing campaigns in this market next month, combined with increased air services, will help to further stimulate travel to Australia."

Mr Boundy said further roll out of initiatives delivered by the Tourism White Paper would help to ensure Australia maintains its share of the global travel market. These initiatives include increased funding for tourism marketing, greater alignment of Australian tourism marketing and research activities, and the new global brand marketing approach.