Recovery to Australia’s inbound visitor market slow but steady

Australia’s export tourism industry is continuing a slow but steady recovery with the number of international visitor arrivals now at 74% of 2019 levels, according to the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC). Australians are heading overseas at an even faster rate, now surpassing the numbers seen in April 2019. “Australia’s export tourism industry is on a slow and steady recovery and while the numbers are not jumping back to previous levels as fast as outbound, we are seeing improvements each month,” ATEC managing director Peter Shelley said. “While this is slower than we’d like overall, there is still a growth trend which, if it continues, should see us back to 2019 levels towards the end of this year or early 2025. “Our industry remains positive and fully engaged in rebuilding our inbound markets.” The latest data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal while Australians are once again enjoying travelling the globe in droves, there are changes to the source countries of our inbound markets. “We are now seeing good growth in inbound visitation from markets including India, Indonesia and South Korea compared to 2019 and, encouragingly, the China market is also showing positive signs of recovery. “With the reinstated funding for the China ADS scheme, we look forward to working with the government to refresh its goals and create modern, consumer driven, quality, group tour offerings to a market which delivered over $3.3bn in tourism spending in 2019.”