Minister Barr: Boom in international visitors and expenditure continues
- Written by ACT Government
Released 14/03/2018
The number of international visitors coming to Canberra continues to climb with a 16.9 percent increase recorded in the past year adding an extra $105.5 million to the ACT economy, according to the Tourism Research Australia International Visitor Survey released today.
The record international visitor increase to 242,975 for the year ending December 2017 continues a trend of people coming to the capital to holiday, visit their friends and relatives and for education purposes.
Money spent by our international visitors increased by 23.3 percent up to a new record level of $558.4 million, well ahead of the national average of nine percent.
Canberra has also been named as the third best city in the world’s Top 10 Cities to visit in Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2018.
The ACT Government continues to proactively market Canberra to international visitors through VisitCanberra’s program of activities including trade events, travel trade and media engagement and cooperative campaigns with online travel agents and Singapore Airlines.
The increase to daily Singapore Airlines flights from 1 May and the recent start of Qatar Airways services between Doha and Canberra is a further signal of the confidence in international visitation to the ACT.
China continues to be the ACT’s largest international visitor source market (18.9 percent) followed by the United States of America (9.7 percent), United Kingdom (9.2 percent), New Zealand (6.1 percent), India (4.7 percent) and Indonesia (4.3 percent).
The ACT Government continues to work towards its goal of growing the ACT’s overnight visitor expenditure to $2.5 billion by 2020.
- Statement ends -
Section: Andrew Barr, MLA | Media Releases
