2. There has been an incredible growth in Australia’s international tourism. In 2018,
approximately 9.2 million tourists visited Australia from overseas, which brought in a
record of $41.3 billion, a six percent growth compared to 2017’s $2.2 billion. This makes
international tourism among the fastest growing sectors and industries in Australian
economy.
According to Tourism Research Australia, the tourism industry of the country directly
contributed 57.3 billion to Australia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and directly and
indirectly employed 996,000 Australians. This stunning growth shows no signs of
slowing down, either.
According to research from Finder Australia, it is expected that more than 10 million
tourists will travel to Australia throughout 2019. This is from the latest data of
Australian Bureau of Statistics that revealed that the number of international tourists to
Australia has consistently grown by 8% each calendar year since 2012.
3. According to the same study, Chinese tourists greatly contributed to this massive tourism
boom. Visitors from China saw the biggest overall growth in 2018 with 1.08 million visits. This
was closely followed by New Zealand with 1,036,500 visits and the USA with 581,000 visits.
Chinese tourists spent $10.4 billion in Australia in 2018 which is almost a quarter of all foreign
tourism income. Because of this, there have been talks and negotiations for new airline links
between China and Australia. The spending of American tourists also increased by 3% and
reached $3.8 billion in 2018. Australia’s objective is to increase this number to $6 billion by
2020.
According to Budget Direct Australia, tourists are even more motivated to visit Australia
because of social media posts about well-known landmarks and attractions. The four most
popular landmarks visited by international tourists are the Sydney Opera House, The Great
Barrier Reef, Uluru formerly known as Ayers Rock and Bondi Beach.
