Arrivals and Departures data; tourism still on the up and up

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Pete Faulkner - Uncategorized

The Short Term Arrivals and Departures data for January from the ABS show tourism into Australia still growing strongly. Short Term Arrivals lifted 3.2% y/y (Trend) and even excluding Chinese arrivals, which were up 6.4% y/y, was up 2.6% y/y.

Accounting for the last 12 months Trend data showed a lift of 4.1% with China up 4.7%.

Where things looked somewhat less positive was the State of Intended Stay data for Queensland (and to a degree NSW). The number of arrivals nominating Queensland as their intended State of Stay, according to the Conus Trend derived from the original unadjusted ABS data, was unchanged from a year ago while NSW saw just a 0.4% lift. Contrast this to Victoria which was up 7.4% and Tasmania which continues to do well with another 4.3% lift.

With all the recent discussion about the poor performance of TNQ in the international visitor space (which regular readers will know we have been highlighting for the best part of 2 years) it will be interesting to see the results for the region from the Dec quarter International Visitors Survey. This is due for release next Wednesday, the day before Kate Jones chairs a tourism round-table in Cairns to discuss the issue.