Welcome to the International Video Portal, Tourism Australia’s 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, South East 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.

This week Jenny Aitken, Regional General Manager New Zealand, provides an update on the latest insights from the New Zealand market and talks about how the ‘There’s nothing like Australia’ will roll out in New Zealand.

Information on who will be appearing will be in the essentials e-newsletter 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.

Total visitor arrivals from Europe (including the UK) have held steady for calendar year to date May 2010 compared to the same period in 2009.

Significant increases in business visits and a moderate increase in VFR visits have partly offset the decline in holiday visits across Europe.

For the same period, holiday visits from key markets on the continent such as Germany and France have increased while the decline in holiday visits from the UK and Ireland continues.

The Icelandic volcanic ash disruption has had an impact on European arrivals performance in 2010 with a drop of 16% in arrivals from Europe to Australia in the month of April.

Tourism Australia recently launched the new ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’ campaign in the UK to drive leisure visitation to Australia and the new campaign will be launched on the Continent during coming months. 

For the latest Visitor Arrivals Data, please click here.

For the latest Market Update reports, please click here.

Total visitor arrivals are up 4 per cent year to date period (January to June 2010) against a very soft first half of 2009. Canada is also up 3 per cent year to date.

Growth in the US is being driven by the rebounding business sector. Business travel has shown a positive return over the first six months of 2010 – up 32 per cent year to date - when compared to the negative 2009 economic crisis levels. Economic indicators are showing a steadily improving US economy and this bodes well for outbound travel.

However, leisure has softened slightly in recent months, with a year to date (January to June 2010) decline of 3 per cent in holiday in the US.

While fare deals remain competitive, they are not on par with 2009 levels. TFC forecasts are positive for 2010 predicting an 8 per cent growth, however for the remainder of 2010, it will be important to benchmark arrivals against a very strong second half of 2009 driven largely by entry of new carriers and unprecedented airfares.

For the latest Visitor Arrivals Data, please click here.

For the latest Market Update reports, please click here.

Year to date (January to June) arrivals for New Zealand are up 3 per cent against last year, brought down by a decline in the visiting friends and relatives (VFR) segment. 

Holiday travel is up 4 per cent and rebounding business confidence this year has given a boost to the market, with and increase in business arrivals, which are up 10 percent. VFR travel has softened generally this year (down 4 percent), as this opportunistic segment becomes accustomed to the value deals which have stayed in the market since late 2008, contributing to complacency and reduced urgency to travel.

Whilst the New Zealand economy is improving, recovery stalled slightly in May, as wary consumers held back spending while awaiting critical May New Zealand Budget announcements. 

For the latest Visitor Arrivals Data, please click here.

For the latest Market Update reports, please click here.

North Asia performed quite well in the first half of 2010 following a difficult year in 2009. Arrivals from China are up 10% and Korea up 17% year on year. Tourism Australia expects growth trends in China and Korea to continue. Hong Kong is down 6% relative to the same period in the previous year but forward bookings are looking more positive.

Capacity provided by Chinese carriers is expected to increase by 70% in 2010. Key to this growth is China Southern (from ten to 24 weekly services by the end of 2010, including new Brisbane services) and Air China which is planning to increase its Beijing services to Sydney and Melbourne (via Shanghai) soon. China Airlines also operated three charters to Cairns and one to Brisbane from late June - mid July, with an average load factor of 93%.

The new campaign “There’s Nothing Like Australia” is being rolled out across North Asia in August.
Tourism Australia’s Greater China Travel Mission will be held at Chengdu from 31 October – 4 November 2010. 

For the latest Visitor Arrivals Data, please click here.

For the latest Market Update reports, please click here.
 

For five months to May 2010, Australia welcomed 111,100 visitors from Singapore. This is a 3% increase from the same period of time in 2009. Of the 111,100 visitors, 61,600 were visiting for leisure (holiday and Visiting Friends and Relatives) purposes. The leisure segment accounts for 55% of total arrivals from Singapore.

Similar trend is seen in the Malaysian market. For the five months to May 2010, there were 87,400 visitors from Malaysia. This is a 3% decrease from the same period of time in 2009. Of the 87,400 visitors, 58,500 were visiting for leisure purposes. The leisure segment account for two thirds of total arrivals from Malaysia. The shift of school holidays from end May (30 May – 14 Jun 2009) to early Jun (5 – 20 Jun 2010) is expected to impact the May and June arrivals. Arrivals are likely to pick up in June.

For both Singapore and Malaysia competition has been strong in the past few months, with competitive airfares offered for the European routes.

Indonesia is a star performer for the first five months of 2010. There were 42,000 Indonesian visitors in the January to May period, showing a huge 24% increase on 2009. The growth is shown in all segments, but particularly in the holiday segment. The growing trend is likely to continue into June and July.

India’s arrivals continue to be driven by growth in Visiting Friends and Relatives. There were 58,700 Indian arrivals in the five months to May, of which 30% were VFR visitors. The VFR segment increased 25% year on year.

For the latest Visitor Arrivals Data, please click here.

For the latest Market Update reports, please click here. 

Japan has had a better start to 2010 with visitor arrivals up 2% in the first 2 months. Contributing to this has been improved overall consumer sentiment and a stronger Japanese Yen as well as many student groups now taking planned school trips which were postponed in 2009 due to H1N1.

Arrivals from Japan have grown 5 per cent in the first half of 2010, which is an encouraging sign for the industry and Japanese trade following a long term decline in arrivals and a challenging 2009.

The launch of the new brand campaign ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’ in Japan took place in Tokyo on 22 July 2010. During the event, Kaz Hori spoke about the four major changes affecting Japanese travel which the new brand campaign will capitalise on:
• The needs of consumers are becoming more diverse. Japanese tourists are moving away from mass tourism, towards more niche experiences. It is essential that we respond to this change by providing a wide range of experiences that meet these needs.
• Advocacy is becoming more important in Japan. Consumers are now able to easily find consumer reviews, and these personal comments and recommendations are impacting greatly on purchasing decisions of Japanese travellers.
• Japanese travellers are becoming more experienced and are shifting towards Free Independent Travel (FIT or non-package) travel. Over 90 per cent of Japanese outbound travellers are repeat travellers and over 40 per cent of Japanese visitors to Australia are non package travellers.
• The internet, guidebooks, retail shops and other traveller recommendations are making it easy for Japanese consumers to plan their own itinerary.

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.