The Changing Nature of the Tourist - Cultural Mix in Australia from 2000 to 2008

Executive Summary

We were asked to find out about the cultural mix in Australia. We found out that tourist from all over the world have travelled to Australia but in the recent years, people from Asian countries have contributed to the high numbers in the rise of travel in Australia, with Europe and the former USSR coming in second followed by tourist from New Zealand and then the Americas and lastly from Africa.

From the data provided from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the most number of people travelling to Australia among the years was in the year 2007 with the numbers reaching a high of 5.64 millions tourists as at the end if December 2007.

Asian tourists coming from both the Southeast and the Northeast countries have always remained high, averaging out at about 240,000 tourists per year, while for Europe and the Former USSR; it averages out at around 180,000 tourists.

For the Americas averaging out at around 70,000 tourists, while for the Oceania and Antarctica the numbers averages out at about 110,000 and for Africa' average of about 66,000 tourists.

From the data we know that tourist from the countries in the Oceania and Antarctica have been decreasing with percentages decreasing every year, tourists from the European countries have shown a slow increase with the percentages increasing by only 2% a year while tourists from the Middle East and the North Africa have shown the most increment increasing almost 20% every year while Asian countries have shown a steady numbers of tourists coming to Australia.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 2

1. Introduction 4

2. Tourism Insight from 1980 to 2004 5

3. Highlight of December 2004 6

4. Highlight of December 2005 8

5. Highlight of December 2006 10

6. Highlight of December 2007 12

7. Highlight of January 2008 14

Conclusion 16

References 17

1. Introduction

Tourism comprises the activities of persons traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment or not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purpose (World Tourism Organization, 1993).

In the case of Australia, it has always had its fair share of the tourism market coming in but there have been some changes in the mix coming to Australia. The tourists mix comprises data from the Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia, the Americas, Oceania & Antarctica, Europe & the Former USSR, South Africa, Middle East & North Africa.

There are also many different reasons for the nature of travel, and holidaying being the main reason, followed by visiting of relatives, for business, etc. The major area of significant growth for short-term arrivals is in visitation from Japan and the Asia (especially China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and, increasing, South Asia).

The primary reason for growth in these markets is the rapid economic growth of the Asia-Pacific region and a corresponding increase in the personal disposable incomes, greater political freedom leading to a lessening of travel restrictions, improved transport links with Australia, and changes in social attitudes to travel as a result of the growth of consumerism in Asian societies (Hall 1994b; Hall & Page 2000).

We have decided to use the facts and statistics provided by the Australia Bureau of Statistics Bureau of tourism research; Tourism Forecasting Council; Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR); Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources (DITR) to further show the details.

2. Tourism Insight from 1980 to 2004

International Arrivals to Australia 1980-2004 ('000)

Year Total Change on previous year (%)

1980 905

1985 1143

1986 1429 25

1987 1785 24.9

1988 2249 26

1989 2080 -7.5

1990 2215 6.5

1991 2370 7

1992 2603 9.8

1993 2996 15.1

1994 3362 12.2

1995 3726 10.8

1996 4165 11.8

1997 4318 3.7

1998 4167 -3.5

1999 4460 7

2000 4931 10.6

2001 4856 -1.5

2002 4841 -0.3

2003 4746 -2.0

2004 5215 9.9

Source; Bureau of tourism research (1992a, 1992b); Tourism Forecasting Council (1997a); DISR (2000a); DITR (2005a).

From the data given we can see the rise of international arrivals to Australia from 1980 to 2004 and the numbers have been growing since then. There have been in some cases whereby the numbers have decreased. From1986 to 1988 shown the most incensement reaching a high of 26 % in 1988 at of 2,249,000 people traveling to Australia but then following year there was a decrease in the number by -7% to of about 2,080,000 people then it showed a rise in numbers from 2,215,000 in 1990 to 2,603,000 in 1992. The number of tourist remains high for the next 4 years of around 4165,000 people coming to Australia in 1996. In 1997 the number of tourist coming to Australia showed slight increase of about 3.7% only, the following year the number decrease by 3.5% at about 4,167,000. In 2000 the number increased from 4,460,000 in 1999 to 4,931,000 which was a 10.6% rise from 1999. From 2001 to 2003 the numbers declined to 4,746,000 in 2003. In 2004 the number rose to about 5,215,000 which was a increase of 9.9% from 2003.

3. Highlight of December 2004

There were about 5.2 million visitor