Europe, US woes hit Australian tourism growth

The number of overseas tourists coming to Australia is slowing down because of difficult economic conditions in Europe and the US.

A downgraded tourism forecast released yesterday by the Tourism Forecasting Committee says the number of international visitors is expected to reach 5.9 million for 2011, a growth rate of only 0.4 per cent. Previously, growth of 3.1 per cent had been predicted.

Three of Australia’s key tourism markets are down, with a decline of 18.1 per cent of visitors from Japan, a decline of 5.7 per cent from the UK and a decline of 4 per cent from the US.

But the chairman of the committee, Bernard Salt, said Japanese visitor numbers can be expected to increase as the impact of the earthquake and tsunami eases.

The forecast says that 7.8 million Australians will go overseas this year, a growth of 9.2 per cent. This is expected to increase to 8.2 million in 2012.