Australians changed their travel plans in the wake of the
Bali bombings but did not stop travelling overseas,
according to a new traveller survey. The latest Australian
Bureau of Statistics overseas arrivals and departures
survey showed the number of people leaving Australia in
November rose 10.4 per cent (24,000 people) compared with
the same month in 2001. The growth was significant even
taking into account the influence of September 11 on 2001
departure figures, Tourism Task Force deputy chief
executive Stephen Albin said. "It has come through loud and
clear that Australians did in fact change their travel
plans following Bali, but they didn't stop travelling
overseas," Albin said. He said Fiji, New Zealand, Vietnam,
China and the US were particularly popular destinations but
Indonesia and Singapore both lost ground. Holiday traffic
numbers remained virtually static compared with the same
period in 2001, but VFR (visiting friends & relatives)
numbers were up by 11,300, those for business travel by
7,800 and those for conference travel by 2,000. Inbound
tourism was expecting another "soft" year as a result of
uncertainty in the global tourism market, according to
Albin, who said Australians would continue to travel
overseas but would choose destinations "closer to home". He
said a key challenge for the inbound industry in 2003 would
be to encourage more Australians to travel domestically
while luring more international tourists to the country.
"We need to look at recapturing some of the outbound market
to convert this into increased domestic tourism," Albin
said.