China contributes to Australia's tourism boom

CANBERRA - Australia tourism has experienced significant growth across a number of Asian markets with China remaining Australia's biggest market outside of New Zealand, the latest International Visitor Survey (IVS) showed.

Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb on Wednesday welcomed the results, saying tourism industry is vital in providing jobs for the Australians.

"Tourism is Australia's largest services export. The jobs of over 929,000 Australians are linked to tourism and the Coalition Government is committed to supporting tourism as a key job creation industry," Robb said.

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"These latest figures show that China is still Australia's largest market, outside of New Zealand, with Chinese visitors increasing their expenditure in the Australian economy to A$5.1 billion ($4.73 billion), while we also remain very competitive in the challenging United States tourism market," he said.

In addition to China, Australia has also experienced tourism growth from other Asian markets including Malaysia and Singapore, Thailand and India.

"This reflects the strong investment interest we have seen recently from Asian-based tourism investors seeking to establish operations in Australia," he said.

The IVS finds the number of overall visitors arriving for the purpose of holiday increased nine percent to reach 2.7 million.

Overall visitor expenditure increased six per cent to A$28.6 billion ($26.5 billion) while the number of nights visitors stayed in Australia increased five percent to 73 million.

Visitor numbers from China increased 14 percent to 697,000 visitors with Chinese visitor expenditure increasing 15 percent to reach A$5.1 billion ($4.73 billion) last year.

Visitor numbers from across Asia continued to increase with visitors from Malaysia increasing 15 percent, Singapore 13 percent and Hong Kong, Thailand and India all increasing ten percent.

Visitation from the United States increased to record levels last year, growing seven percent to 488,000 visitors and trip expenditure increasing six percent to A$2.6 billion ($2.4 billion).

Holiday visitation from the United Kingdom also experienced strong growth of 16 percent, increasing the nights spent in Australia by 12 percent.