Record breaking year for tourism

International and domestic visitorshave contributed a record $116.7 billion to the Australian economy, creatingnew jobs and reconfirming tourism's status as a super growth sector.

The State of the Industry 2015–16 report confirms 2015-16was a record year for Australia's tourism industry and it is going to continueto grow with total tourism spend forecast at $162 billion by 2020-21.

Produced by Tourism Research Australia (TRA) the reportshows how the industry is tracking against the Tourism 2020 targets, the jointplan between industry and government to boost overnight visitor spending tobetween $115 billion and $140 billion by 2020.

The report reconfirms positive growth across all majorAustralian markets against their Tourism 2020 targets including; expenditure,visitation, aviation, accommodation and labour force.

China continues to lead market growth and encouragingly is98 per cent of the way towards its 2020 expenditure target of $9 billionannually.

Harnessing this growth, the Turnbull Government designated2017 the China–Australia Year of Tourism to further grow Australia's tourismindustry by promoting Australia to China.

More Australians thanever are deciding to take "staycations" spending a total of $59 billion withday trip visitors contributing an additional $19.6 billion to the economy.

The positive growth also extends to international aviationcapacity, growing 6.2 per cent to 23.5 million available inbound seats and withaccommodation room supply increasing 1.4 per cent to 249,131 rooms.

For the first time, The State of the Industry 2015–16 reportis available in an interactive, web-based format.

To download a copy of the report, visit www.tra.gov.au.