North Asian tourists driving economic growth

Today I release the latest International Visitor Survey which shows growth across key Asian markets has resulted in a $12.3 billion contribution to the Australian economy in the last year.

Australia's tourism industry is currently growing three times as fast as the rest of the Australian economy, with tourists from China, Japan and Korea fuelling this booming economic activity.

Spending by Chinese tourists now exceeds $9 billion annually, which was the stretch target government and industry aimed to reach in the year 2020 as part of the Tourism 2020 strategy.

While this target was reached four years early and annual growth from the Chinese market now exceeds 20 per cent, the Turnbull Government is implementing policies to drive this growth further.

Just last week, the Australian and Chinese Governments settled arrangements for a landmark open aviation market between our two countries.

The Korean market has once again boomed with tourists from this market soaring 29 per cent in the last 12 months. Spending by Korean tourists reached $1.6 billion in the last year.

There are encouraging signs Japanese tourists are once again falling in love with Australia, with tourists from Japan jumping 22 per cent in the last year to reach a seven year high. Spending by Japanese tourists reached $1.6 billion in the last year. Japanese visitors accounted for 20 per cent of the total growth in international visitor numbers to Tropical North Queensland, outstripping all other regions across the country.

The International Visitor Survey is available on the Tourism Research Australia website at www.tra.gov.au