New air services between Australia and China were launched practically every other week last year, but that wasn’t enough to make the Asian market Australia’s largest inbound market in 2016.
No, the Kiwis held onto the title for another year, but according to experts, it’s likely to be the last.
Figures released by The Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF) this week found Australia welcomed some 8.2 million visitors for the year to November 2016, up 11.3 percent on the prior 12 months.
Although the figure is large by Australia’s standards, it’s only slightly ahead of US city L.A., which saw its international inbound market grow to 7.1 million – and that’s just a city.
Despite an aggressive boost in air services between Australia and China in 2016, Chinese arrivals remained Australia’s second largest inbound market, while New Zealand proved to be a formidable opponent, holding onto first place with some 1.3 million visitors, up 2.9 percent on the same period 2015.
TTF’s CEO, Margy Osmond, indicated that it may very well be the last year Kiwis claim the top spot as China is anticipated to overtake New Zealand next year due to its impressive growth rate of 19 percent.
Osmond said it was also important to recognise other markets experiencing considerable growth to Australia, including the USA, which grew by 18.3 percent; Singapore 12.1 percent; Japan 22.2 percent; Malaysia 15.7 percent; and South Korea 27.2 percent.
She continued, highlighting that although Australia saw some “excellent figures” in 2016, it didn’t come easy or by accident.
“It’s the hard work of industry and tourism authorities to promote Australia as a must-see destination for international visitors at a time when they can choose from anywhere in the world to travel – it’s a cut-throat competition and we cannot afford to take our eye off the ball for a second.”
Margy Osmond, TTF Chief Executive
“In the coming years we are going to see a surge of visitors that will want to experience what we have to offer and we need to ask ourselves right now are we ready to handle the millions of new visitors on their way?”