Australia’s inbound visitor numbers disappointing

As the industry marks 12 months of open borders, Australian tourism businesses continue to feel the drag of the COVID shut-down which brought $45 billion of tourism exports to a halt. While international travellers have quickly regained their pre-COVID appetite for travel in the northern hemisphere, Australia’s inbound visitor numbers continue to rise slowly and remain a long way off the peak.

ATEC Managing Director Peter Shelley said: “While international visitor numbers remain down, so does business revenue and therefore government revenue and ultimately there is less impetus for investment and limited industry growth.

“With inbound tourism capable of making such a significant contribution to the bottom line of both business and government coffers, getting us back to market quickly has the added bonus of helping along the Australian economy.”

Australian Bureau of Statistics arrival numbers for December 2022 show Australia is still 40 percent down compared to the number of international visitors who arrived in December 2019. A disappointed Mr Shelley said: “Last year the Federal Labor government promised a $10 million fund to support Australian tourism exporters to drive back into the market but today the fund remains undelivered with no word on when this industry will see the support materialise.

“There is no doubt we were late in returning to the international travel marketplace but we can clearly see our recovery is taking much longer than for our competitors in the northern hemisphere and even Africa.

“With Europe already at 87 percent of its pre-COVID capacity, Australia has a long way to go, which will be made doubly challenging for our industry given we are a long-haul and more complex destination, making it more difficult for us to convert international holiday makers.”

Given the high level of competitiveness for the global tourism dollar, Mr Shelley said Australia’s sluggish return fully highlights the need for stronger Government investment in re-establishing our brand on the world stage.

“COVID brought Australia’s tourism exports to a halt and took with it more than 50 years of trusted trade relationships and engagement. Much of these are small to medium size businesses which have limited resources to restart, however with a little support can bring Australia back to full capacity much sooner than 2025,” he said.

“Flights and staffing are key challenges for inbound tourism, but we still have a great reputation globally and international visitors are keen on Australia. What we need to find is the key to unlock this opportunity.”

Destination Gold Coast is diving head-first into the new year, on the back of the success of 2022 with a total of 146 events in the city’s business events pipeline, worth $200 million between now and 2030.

Bids secured include two confirmed international events, the 17th World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC) Biennial Congress in 2023 and the 74th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference in 2024, which were secured with the support of Tourism Australia’s

Bid Fund Program and Tourism Events Queensland’s Business Events Acquisition and Leveraging Fund.

These two events combined are expected to att ract 4,000 delegates from 80 countries and will inject more than $11 million into the Gold Coast economy.

Destination Gold Coast’s Head of Business Events

Selina Sinclair said demand for hosting business events on the Gold Coast has increased significantly over the past 12 months and is building by the day, as the city’s reputation for innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship continues to expand. “In addition to our incredible climate, coastal location and sundrenched lifestyle, a significant investment in infrastructure has been made over the past two years which is seeing the Gold Coast’s profile as a business events destination continue to grow,” Ms Sinclair said.

“The Gold Coast is att racting scientists, engineers, inventors, entrepreneurs, and creatives of every kind. With companies pouring capital into investment, ideas, entrepreneurship and innovation are flourishing across a wide range of industries.

“I would like to acknowledge and thank our partners Tourism Australia and Tourism and Events Queensland who aided our winning bids.”

The 74th Annual ICA Conference was initially secured in 2020 but the event went virtual due to the global pandemic. Destination Gold Coast re-bid for the conference to be hosted from June 19 to 24, 2024, and excitingly the Gold Coast was selected to host 3,000 delegates from over 80 countries including the United States, Germany and Japan.

Marking their first time to Australia in 18 years and the very first time being hosted on the Gold Coast, the 17th WFC Biennial Congress will att ract 1,000 delegates over four days from October 11 to 14, 2023 who will convene at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre Exhibition and Convention Centre, while staying at The Star Gold Coast.

Tourism Australia Executive General Manager Commercial and Business Events, Robin Mack, said the Business Events Bid Fund Program played an important role in securing these two international events which will deliver significant benefi ts to Australia’s visitor economy. He said: “We congratulate Destination Gold Coast on securing these two important events, which will generate global attention for Australia’s world-class business events off ering.”

Destination Gold Coast also partnered with the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre and successfully won international bid for Society for Eye Research (ISER) 2023 which will add another $3 million to the City’s economy.