Record 8.5 million tourists visited Australia in 2018 adding $44 billion to the economy

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Record 8.5 million tourists visited Australia in 2018, as per the latest International Visitor Survey. About 1.3 million visitors from China came to Australia. China is Australia’s biggest market. They spent U.S. dollars 11.7 billion, which was a rise of 13 per cent.

Tourists from New Zealand ranked second with 1.3 million visitors.  The Japanese market came in third spot, with arrivals reaching 434,000, a rise of 8 per cent. India continues to be the strongest performing market for tourists holidaying in Australia, with 336,000 arrivals in 2018, which was an increase of 18 per cent.

As per the Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham, the record high tourist numbers pumped U.S. dollars 44 billion into the economy, which is a seven per cent increase from last year. According to him, the Asian markets were ‘key’ to Australia’s economic growth. The main reasons are huge emerging middle class, ever improving aviation capacity and increasingly competitive airfares.

About 425,000 overseas tourists flocked to Australia in 2018 injecting an extra U.S. dollars 3.1 billion into the Australian economy.  Free and Independent Travellers (FIT), are more likely to stay longer, spend more and disperse more widely across regional Australia.

NSW was the most popular destination for tourists with 4.37 million, following by Victoria with 3.03 million and Queensland with 2.76 million.

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