Dollar's rise gives Australians wings
The number of Australians going overseas has skyrocketed this year, the stronger dollar giving them freedom to tour the world.
Bureau of Statistics figures show that short trips by Australians in the four months to April shot up by a third from last year, from 943,000 to a record 1.25 million.
Overseas arrivals also climbed to record levels, with 1.71 million tourists, business people and students arriving in the four months, up 11 per cent from last year.
Most of the growth in arrivals is in Victoria, where tourism is exploding. So far this year, the number of tourists naming Victoria as the state where they spent most time has surged by 105,000, but all other states rose by just 63,000.
Victoria still ranks a distant third behind NSW and Queensland as a destination, but its share of tourists has climbed from 12 per cent a decade ago to 20 per cent. Tourist numbers are on track to reach 1 million this year, compared with 393,000 a decade ago.
The strong dollar is pushing Australians overseas. The bureau estimates that while we made 25 per cent more trips abroad in the March quarter, we spent only 8.5 per cent more to do it. But Flight Centre's general manager of products, Paul Scurrah, said terrorism fears had also faded as attacks such as September 11 and the Bali bombing recede in time, while intense competition is keeping air fares down.
"Tourism is riding on the back of a more stable environment," Mr Scurrah said. "Indonesia has bounced back. Fiji is enjoying relatively peaceful times, New Zealand is a very hot destination. It's probably what the market should be doing in a safe environment."
Mr Scurrah said the surge in overseas travel was also driven by foreign competition and low-cost carriers. "The pressure on airlines to make air travel affordable is more intense than ever."
He said return flights between Melbourne and Christchurch, which used to cost more than $500, are down to $259 as foreign airlines cut prices to fill empty seats.
As The Age reported on Saturday, Australians are flooding back to Indonesia in their tens of thousands, despite the Government making it one of just 17 countries on its travel blacklist.
Australians have been advised "to defer non-essential travel to Indonesia, including Bali". Yet in the first four months of this year, almost 95,000 Australians went, more than double the 42,000 visitors to Indonesia in the same period last year. This year has also seen big jumps in Australians heading for Malaysia, Thailand, New Zealand, China and Hong Kong.
New Zealanders made up a third of the growth in tourist arrivals. China, Malaysia and Japan were the other main growth markets.