Welcome to the International Video Portal, Tourism Australia’s new video initiative to provide the latest market knowledge and insights direct from the marketplace.

Each week and in rotation, Tourism Australia’s Regional General Managers and Regional Managers in the UK, Europe, North Asia, Americas, Southeast Asia, New Zealand and Japan will provide the latest and most relevant market specific information for you to understand the latest trends and help identify new business opportunities.

In the next two weeks, Regional General Managers from New Zealand and Japan will update you with some insights on their markets.

Jenny Aitken – Regional Manager New Zealand – 3rd March
Jenny will give an insight on the outbound, trade and aviation environments in the New Zealand market.

Kaz Hori – Regional General Manager Japan – 10th March
A key message from Kaz is that the market is becoming more diversified, and at the same time, so is the distribution channel.

We will also feature some Regional General Manager Eastern Hemisphere:
Maggie White – Regional General Manager South/Southeast Asia and Gulf – 17th March
Johnny Nee – Regional General Manager North Asia – 24th March

Information on who will be appearing will be in Essentials each week.

Tourism Australia also prepares Market Update reports on our key tourism markets. These provide an overview of Tourism Australia’s marketing activities as well as an update on current market conditions and outlooks. Please go to the Market Updates page to view the latest reports on the December 2009/January 2010 period.

Total European (including UK) visitor arrivals for calendar year 2009 have declined by two per cent comparative to 2008. Within this, Holiday Visitors have declined slightly compared to 2008, and there has been good growth within the VFR segment, stimulated by increased air capacity and strong competitive airfares. Business visitors however are down 18 per cent reflecting global corporate travel trends through 2009.

Demographically, the under 30s and 60s years and over age groups have been less affected by the economic conditions in 2009 and have increased slightly compared to 2008. Tourism Australia has recently launched some major activity with key airline partners through Europe to continue to drive Leisure visitation and capitalise on a slowly returning business travel environment.
 

For the latest Visitor Arrivals Data, please click here.

For the latest Market Update reports, please click here.

The Americas region is performing strongly in terms of total visitor arrivals.

Year to date January to November arrivals figures for the region are up 3 per cent on last year, boosted by strong numbers out of the USA. Holiday and VFR arrivals are generally performing well out of the region, however business travel is in significant decline in all markets except Argentina.

All age segments are showing good growth except the over 60’s which declined 3%. Increased aviation out of the US and Argentina and competitive airfares have been a key factor in arrivals growth. Despite a weakening Australian dollar, Australia’s value proposition has remained appealing and airfare offers have made Australia more immediately appealing.

For the latest Visitor Arrivals Data, please click here.

For the latest Market Update reports, please click here.

There were over 1.1 million visitor arrivals from New Zealand for calendar year 2009. Overall, Australia has held its market share well, considering that total outbound departures from New Zealand for 2009 showed a decline in all international travel.

In 2009 leisure arrivals were particularly strong, with VFR the strongest performing segment of leisure arrivals. This is a direct result of consumers leveraging the aggressively priced Tasman airfares and taking the opportunity to visit friends and relatives. Business arrivals have continued to show limited signs of recovery as the sector continues to focus on cost savings including decreasing travel costs.

Industry are reporting a good start to 2010 with high interest levels in short-haul travel compared to this time last year, increasing their focus back on Australia at a time when they traditionally concentrate on UK/Europe travel sales. The biggest challenge for trade is to capture the land sales from the growing consumer trend to purchase cheap air online.

For the latest Visitor Arrivals Data, please click here.

For the latest Market Update reports, please click here.

China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea recorded positive growth for November with 8%, 7%, 6% and 4% respectively following the market situation and consumer sentiment improving markedly in the last quarter of 2009.

This has restored consumer confidence for overseas travel and our visitors arrivals are now back to growth mode. The recovery is rapid especially from China and even Korea where arrivals have been improving lately after a long period of decline.

Arrivals from Hong Kong and Taiwan have been steady and solid throughout the year and are expected to finish the year well with a double digit growth. As the momentum of recovery is expected to continue over the next few months and post Chinese New Year, Tourism Australia will be launching Brand co-op activities with airlines and key trade partners across North Asia as well as supporting Chinese New Year charter flights from China.

For the latest Visitor Arrivals Data, please click here.

For the latest Market Update reports, please click here.
 

Visitor arrivals from Singapore showed a 5% increase for the 2009 calendar year. Australia has benefited from its status as closest Western destination and the historically low airfares available throughout 2009. However, there is a marked increase in competition from other destinations as national tourism organisations identify Singapore as a key market to stimulate arrivals. The Singaporean consumer is one where travel is part of their lifestyle, not a luxury.

Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, India and Thailand are showing positive growth in visitor arrivals for year 2009.

Consumer confidence is returning in different stages around the region and arrivals show the continued impact of heavily discounted airfares by major legacy and LCC carriers particularly in Singapore and Malaysia.

Most significantly, in Singapore, this growth is being led by Leisure Visitors. September 2009 saw a milestione in Malaysian arrivals as they surpassed 200,000 visitors for the first time in a 12 month period. The Malaysian growth, attributed to families taking leisure trips and VFR visits, is expected to continue with trade partners indicating a steady pick up for Chinese New Year bookings.

Indian holiday arrivals have declined recently but are still up 8% year on year at the end 2009. Conversely, Indian VFR traffic is registering higher than expected growth. Indonesian Holiday and VFR arrivals are maintaining a strong upward trend as the year end holidays began in November.

Outbound travel from the Gulf including Saudi and the UAE has been impacted by the H1N1 flu virus as well as the global economic downturn particularly in Dubai. Total arrivals saw the holiday segment continue to fall (-19%) with increases in the VFR (28%) and Education (46%) segments.

For the latest Visitor Arrivals Data, please click here.

For the latest Market Update reports, please click here. 

Japan has witnessed a better start to 2010 with visitors in January up 7%. Contributing to this has been improved consumer sentiment and a stronger Japanese Yen as well as many student groups now taking the planned school trips that were postponed in 2009 due to H1N1. Total outbound from Japan was up 9%, a positive result for the sixth consecutive month.

Our aviation links are set to improve with Jetstar re-instating Osaka to Cairns services in April and Qantas announcing increased capacity from July.

March - May is looking more postive with rebooked school excursion groups and the gradual recovery of general group tours from April, however the outlook from June onwards is still soft for Australia. According to trade, package business to Australia held up in first quarter 2010, especially Honeymoon products.

In the recent Global Market Monitor, our trade partners noted a definite trend towards FIT style of travel with a reported increase in direct bookings and purpose‐driven travel guided by special interests of consumers.

To access the Global Market Monitor, please click here

The latest International Visitor Survey (IVS) figures (released on 10 March 2010), showed that although visitors were down by 22% in 2009, average spend and duration of stay for Japanese visitors to Australia were up by 7% and 6% respectively.

For the latest Visitor Arrivals Data, please click here.

For the latest Market Update reports, please click here.