Tourism drives Australia’s trade in services

Australia's trade in servicesrecorded strong growth in 2015-16, increasing 7.7 per cent to $146 billion.

Trade In Services Australia2015-16, which I release today, shows services exports grew 9 per cent to $68.3billion, driven by an increasing number of international visitors who arespending more.

Tourism accounted for half of allservices exports in 2015-16 with short-term visitor arrivals increasing to 7.8million. New Zealand, China and the United Kingdom were the largest sources ofinternational visitors. International visitors collectively consumed $34.2billion worth of goods and services in Australia, with Chinese visitors thelargest spenders at $8,405 per capita.

Education exports increased 8.3 percent to $20.3 billion of which the largest component, education-related travelservices, rose 9.4 per cent to $19.9 billion.

Exports of business services rose8.2 per cent to $18.7 billion, with telecommunications, computer &information services increasing 13.9 per cent to $3.3 billion and technical andother business services rising 13.1 per cent to $3.8 billion.

The United States remainedAustralia's largest two-way services partner in 2015-16, accounting for 15.8per cent of total services trade (valued at $23.0 billion), followed by Chinaand the United Kingdom.

Australia's top services exportmarket was China, up 21.3 per cent to $10.7 billion, followed by the UnitedStates, up 14.5 per cent to $8.2 billion, and the United Kingdom, up nearly 1per cent to $4.9 billion.

The ten-country ASEAN regionaccepted $10.9 of Australian services exports, which is up 6.7 percent andaccounts for 15.9per cent of total services exports. Australia's strong services exports haveensured our economy has continued to grow after the mining boom. Servicesexports are critical to Australia's future economic prosperity, especially as severalof our major trading partners shift from investment-led growth toconsumption-based economies.

Demand for Australian services willcontinue to grow as Asia's middle class does. Capitalising on this demandthrough our ambitious trade agenda is a key component of the TurnbullGovernment's economic plan for a stronger and more diverse economy.

Trade In Services Australia 2015-16is available on the trade, investment and economic statisticssection of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Tradewebsite.