Not all doom and gloom

THE lack of international visitation to Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic may not hit the tourism sector as hard as initially feared, Tourism Research Australia (TRA) believes.

In a report released this week, Austrade’s tourism intelligence branch said that last year domestic travellers outspent those arriving from overseas by a ratio of more than 2:1, and Australians travelling internationally spent $26 billion more than overseas visitors spent in Australia.

“In 2019, more than nine million international visitors came to Australia, spending a total of $45 billion, with only $31 billion of this international spend reaching the Australian economy,” the report concluded.

“This was overshadowed by the $107 billion Australians spent on domestic overnight travel and day trips...it was also significantly less than the $65 billion spent by Australians on 11.6 million outbound trips, half of which was holiday travel.”

The TRA report also contends the much talked about domesticled recovery in Australia could incorporate converting a portion of travellers who had been considering overseas travel into domestic tourists instead.

However, TRA did also recognise the long-term impact that COVID-19 is likely to have on future travel and spending patterns for Aussie travellers.

“People are likely to be more concerned about personal hygiene and safety,” the report cautioned.

“This will retard the resumption of all kinds of travel, and people may be more reluctant to undertake some of the activities”.

The decline in household incomes is also likely to have a significant impact on travel intention, the report noted.