Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Minister for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Furner for his interest in tourism issues generally. Despite recent concerns, tourism remains Australia’s leading service export earner. It was worth $23 billion in 2009-10. In fact, in 2009-10, despite being a difficult year on the domestic front, tourism grew faster than Australia’s economy—it grew at 3.2 per cent to $34 billion, compared to 2.3 per cent. In 2010, Australia’s tourism industry experienced a recovery. We welcomed 5.9 million international visitors, up just over five per cent on the previous year. This was led by an increasing market growth from many Asian countries and in particular record growth from China. What is not commonly known is that China is now Australia’s largest tourism market by value. The inbound value of the market was some $3.1 billion for the year ending December 2010. Driving these strong figures from the China market is the obvious strength of the Chinese economy, what is broadly known as the middle-classing of China and the introduction of additional airline services, a good example of which is China Southern Airlines, which recently opened direct flights to Brisbane. That airline plans to increase its services to 50 a week by 2012.

Tourism contributes just over half a million jobs and there was an increase in tourism employment over the year 2009-10. This is particularly important for small business. Ninety per cent of tourism operators are small businesses, particularly in rural and regional areas. (Time expired)