Tourism green shoots: TRA
THE outlook for Australia’s visitor economy has “improved significantly” throughout 2021, a new report from Tourism Research Australia claims, suggesting the country’s national economy is presenting a stronger than expected recovery.
The Australian Tourism in 2020 report also showed Q1 2021 saw total domestic overnight and day trip spend amount to $22.9 billion, 19% higher than the $19.6 billion spend noted in the preceding quarter in 2020.
Further life signs for the tourism sector were seen in the final quarter of 2020, with employment rising by 5.1% on the preceding period, well above the seasonal increase in tourism job creation typically seen between each quarter.
Investment in future tourism infrastructure for the period 2019/20 is also being maintained for the most part, the report stated, with Australia having an investment pipeline of $43.6 billion across 255 projects, compared to a similar $45.3 billion in the previous corresponding period.
As of Mar, aviation performance was also shown to be performing strongly, with 2.8 million domestic passengers carried on flights, just short of the 3.1 million travellers noted in Mar 2020, but almost twenty times as many as a low point in Apr 2020.
The report also found aircraft were being better utilised by airlines, with the 67% load factor for Mar 2021 up four percentage points on the corresponding month a year earlier.
However the areas of the country riding out the pandemic most successfully have undoubtedly been regional areas, which continue to recover much faster than Australia’s major cities on the back of urban-based travellers deferring planned international travel to head off on trips to provincial areas.
In the period from Jan to Mar, domestic overnight spend in regional Australia exceeded prepandemic levels (comparative to months in 2019), however the story is very different in built-up areas, with international border closures and a significantly reduced business travel segment leading to a continued drop in domestic overnight spend.