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Australia's tourism industry, which is facing a slump as the global economic woes has dented arrivals from the US and Europe, is focussing extra hard on new markets such as India and China to make up for the dip.
The Australia's Minister for Resources and Energy, and Tourism, Mr Martin Ferguson, indicated that the country is stepping up spends of marketing dollar within the Asian region, with special focus on the increasing clique of globetrotting Indian and Chinese tourists.
“We are seeing a slowdown amid high levels of economic uncertainty in the US and Europe… and Japan still recovering from March's earthquake and tsunami… The focus is on newer markets, with China and India right on top,” Mr Ferguson told Business Line in a recent interaction during his three-day visit here.
He said that with no sign of recovery in Europe or the US for at least 12 months or more, Australia needs to look for new growth markets to offset the drop in arrivals from the countries that have traditionally supplied the bulk of the tourist inflows.
The latest Overseas Arrivals and Departures data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows total international visitor arrivals to Australia decreased 9 per cent in September 2011 compared with the same month last year. China and India, however, bucked the trend, with continued strong growth in arrivals from both countries.
China continued its upward trend, surging 19 per cent while arrivals from India were up over 12 per cent during the month. Cumulatively, arrivals from both China and India were up 19 per cent and 6 per cent respectively in the nine months to September. The data showed that arrivals from the majority of Australia's top 10 inbound markets decreased in September, with arrivals from Malaysia down 28 per cent, and Japan and New Zealand both down 21 per cent compared to September 2010.
While a number of Asian markets continue to support the inbound sector, demand from North West Europe and the Americas continues to weaken with arrivals from both regions down 3.5 per cent and 3.7 per cent for the nine months to September, respectively, according to data posted on the “Invest in Australia” Web site.
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