Seasonally adjusted short-term arrivals have broken through the 8.4 million mark for the previous 12 months for the first time. Annual growth has exceeded 10% for each of the past 9 months, with it sitting at 10.3% in March. China remains a major growth factor with arrivals up 12.9% annually; although this is the slowest pace of growth for the sector since Sept 2014. Annual arrivals from China are edging closer to 1.25 million for the 12 months to March (1.24 million).
Short-term departures actually fell from a year ago (-4.0%), the first dip in almost 2 years, and are up just 3.6% for the 12 months to March.
Data from the Tourism Research Australia International and National Visitor Surveys are due for release in the first and third weeks of June.
May 13th, 2017 at 7:50 pm
Thanks Pete. Short-term departures may be slowing because the bulk of the population has taken on too much debt and many are starting to struggle with repayments, even at very low interest rates.
May 13th, 2017 at 10:44 pm
Gene, that may be true although Phillip Lowe’s comments about household debt the other day would tend not to suggest such a negative outlook. As the graph shows, the dip in y/y departures is but a tiny bump in the road of an otherwise pretty impressive ramp-up!
Thanks for the comment. Pete