As we have seen from the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the country has enjoyed a massive year-on-year uplift in leisure tourism in March. Not only this, but shared visitors between Australia and Japan seem to be at the heart of this uptick in the tourism industry.
The ABS results showed that overseas arrivals are up by 11.5 per cent from March 2015 to March 2016 and 26 per cent of these travellers were from Japan, reports News.com.au.
It seems as though the two countries are almost tourist-sharing, as Japan has seen a significant amount of growth in arrivals from Australia, with figures recording a 32 per cent growth.
Although a large amount of visitors came from Japan, it would appear that there has been an influx of Asian visitors to Australia in general. These include tourists from China, Hong Kong and South Korea, who are all travelling to the country with increasing frequency thanks to the accessibility of airline services and capacity.
John O'Sullivan, Tourism Australia's managing director, said: "With the region's enormous emerging and emerged middle class, ever improving international aviation links and effective marketing, we continue to realise the tourism potential of Asia."
According to the ABS figures, it looks like most of these visitors are favouring the attractions of Queensland and the Northern Territory. Meanwhile, it seems that New South Wales and Victoria are proving to be less popular than previous years.
It's likely that this can be attributed to a popular documentary, featuring the dulcet tones of David Attenborough and focuses on the Great Barrier Reef. It also heavily features the merits of Queensland, which is perhaps why there has been such an increase in the amount of visitors to the part of the country.
Margy Osmond, chief executive officer of the Tourism and Transport Forum, has commented that the uptick in visitor numbers shows that the tourism industry should be a main area of campaign for the candidates in the upcoming elections.
She believes: "Tourism is the industry that party policies need to back in the upcoming campaign, there is no doubt about that."
