Holiday in Australia proves too expensive for Britons

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This was published 12 years ago

Holiday in Australia proves too expensive for Britons

By Matt O'Sullivan

BRITONS are abandoning Australia as a tourist destination due to the weakness of their country's economy, and the strong Australian dollar making holidays here more expensive.

The number of visitors from Britain - Australia's second-biggest source of tourists - fell 22 per cent to 60,100 in March, compared with the same month last year, figures from the the Bureau of Statistics show.

The slump helped pull down the total number of British visitors for the year to March by almost 7 per cent.

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Tourism groups blamed the biggest monthly drop in almost nine years primarily on Britain's weak economy and government austerity measures but conceded that the Australian dollar had played a part. The dollar is trading near a 25-year high against the pound.

Visitors from the United States also fell almost 3 per cent in March despite competition on the Pacific air route leading to historically cheap fares and the publicity blitz flowing from the visit to Australia in December of the television star Oprah Winfrey. The Australian dollar is trading above $1.07 against the greenback.

Tourism-dependent areas such as north Queensland have been the hardest hit in the past year as the strong dollar has encouraged Australians to travel abroad while weak European and US economies have put off foreign visitors.

About 1.36 million more Australians have travelled overseas in the past year than foreigners have visited Australia.

"We must continue to promote Australia as a destination as we face challenging conditions in some of the key source markets," said John Lee, the chief executive of the Tourism and Transport Forum.

International arrivals fell 5.1 per cent to 501,100 in March while the number of Australians departing fell almost 4.7 per cent to 532,600. The forum attributed the monthly fall in Australians travelling overseas to travellers deferring trips until the Easter holidays in April.

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The Japanese earthquake and tsunami on March 11 also brought a recovery in Australia's fifth-biggest source of foreign visitors to a dramatic halt. The number of Japanese arrivals fell 18 per cent in March.

The latest figures also show that Australians en masse abandoned plans to fly to Japan after the disaster. Departures almost halved in March to 7500. Japan Airlines issued figures this week showing a 57 per cent fall in passengers on flights between Australia and Japan during Japan's busiest holiday period, known as Golden Week. Qantas and Jetstar have also reduced the number of flights on the route.

One of Australia's largest inbound tourism operators, AOT Group, said weak economic conditions had led to fewer Britons travelling here but the monthly figures were distorted by Easter falling in April this year.

But it conceded that the annual decline in British visitors of 7 per cent was not expected to improve until Britain's economy did.

The rare ray of hope for Australian tourism operators was a 17 per cent rise in Chinese visitors in March, while the number of Indians choosing Australia as a destination rose 15 per cent.

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