INTERNATIONAL visitor arrivals to Australia are set to double over the next eight years, according to tourism minister Jackie Kelly.
She said tourism will continue to be Australia’s number one export industry with arrivals set to rise from 4.2m this year to 8.4m by 2008.
Although Kelly admitted Australia had suffered from the Asian currency crisis last year, with overall arrival figures down 3.5% to 4.1m visitors, she said 1999 figures look positive, with latest figures showing UK arrivals increased 14% to 474,000 in the year ending January 1999.
Australian Tourist Commission managing director John Morse said:”This year we will achieve a number of milestones including 1m visitors out of Europe, 500,000 of these out of the UK. By 2020 we could see up to 25m visitors a year.”
Morse pointed to the increase in exhibitors at this year’s Australian Tourism Exchange as proof of Australia’s booming industry. This year’s event attracted 2,248 delegates from 48 countries -Ê48 of the exhibitors attended for the first time. Kelly said the record attendance at ATE should generate £1bn of tourism business.