The Top Tourist Destinations in New South Wales

Discuss about the Determinants of Chinese Visitors to Australia.

Tourism in Australia is one of the major components of the economic growth. This service sector has been rapidly growing for the past few decades. In 2014-15, the tourism sector constituted 3% of the GDP of Australia, with AUD 47.5 billion contribution in the national economy (Pham, Nghiem & Dwyer, 2017). All the federal territories of Australia have some unique tourist destinations, which attract the local as well as global tourists. Among all the territories, New South Wales (NSW) has been attracting the most national and international tourists. Canberra, the capital of Australia and Sydney, the most glamorous city of the nation are situated in NSW (Reisinger, 2015). According to Ironside (2015), Sydney, the state capital of NSW, is also stated the tourism capital of Australia. The city has been flooding with local and international tourists for the past few years. This contributes majorly in the growth of not only the state of NSW, but also of the nation. Apart from Sydney, NSW also has many top rated tourist attractions, which allures the international visitors more than any other territories or states. NSW topographically represents the diverse landscapes of the nation, which is a major attraction of this state (Hastings, 2016). Thus, the state has become most preferred tourist destination for the international tourists. This research report will highlight the data of the international tourism in NSW for the past few years and its impact on the economy, and will analyze it to present the tourism trend in the state. The aim of the report is to present the future of the international tourism in NSW.

Data collection is the primary part for any research report. Data creates the foundation for a research, based on which the analysis is done. Data is of two types, primary and secondary. Primary data refers to the information that is collected directly from the field of study, while secondary data is the information, which is collected from already published sources, such as, books, peer-reviewed journals, online publications, governmental and other official websites, and newspaper articles (Cheng & Phillips, 2014).

The research study will be conducted on the topic of trend of international tourism in New South Wales and its implications for predicting the future of the tourism in the state. Hence, to conduct this study, the data on international tourism in NSW from recent past is required. Thus, secondary data, that is, published information from the following tourism government websites will be collected. The websites are Destination NSW, Tourism Research Australia, Production Commission of Australian Government and Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF). These websites have published reports on international tourism trend in NSW, which will be used for this report. The collected data will be analyzed by using the descriptive method under qualitative analysis process. The published tables and graphs will be analyzed using descriptive analysis method.

Data Collection for Research Study

As per the report of Ttf.org.au (2018), the international tourism in Australia has been growing rapidly. It is seen that during March 2018, there were 872,400 international visitor arrivals, which is 13% greater from the same period in previous year. There is also a growth of 7.7% in the number of international tourists in the year ending March 2018 than the previous year, with 9 million visitor arrivals. In this regard, the Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF) has drilled down further to calculate the percentage of international visits in 2016 in each state and territory of Australia.

According to Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF) (2018), Australia received 295 million tourists in 2016, which comprised of 190 million (64%) domestic daytrips, 94 million (32%) domestic overnight visits and 11 million (4%) international visits. The most popular destinations are NSW with 90 million (31%) visits, followed by 73 million (25%) in Victoria, and 64 million (22%) in Queensland.

In the last few years, from 2012 to 2016, there was 14% increase in the total visits, among which international visitation comprised of 33%, which is quite a significant number and the majority of this visit goes to NSW. NSW experienced a significant growth of 10%.

The report also highlights the percentage of spending on international tourism by each state and territory. It shows that, NSW invests spends the highest amount, 29.5%, among all the states for improving the tourism facilities, within 2012 to 2015.

TTF also found that majority of the investments are made in the field of arts and recreation, although NSW has focused only on accommodation facilities and aviation, which ensures the consistency of the international visitor arrivals and overnight spending.

NSW is the most dominant jurisdiction in terms of its proportion of the tourism investment pipeline, with 30% of the total (around $9 billion). This is followed by investment into WA (22%), Queensland (19%) and Victoria (18%). In these states, the total investment was primarily driven by funding in the arts & recreation industry (Ttf.org.au, 2018).

Regarding the total tourism consumption, that is, consumer spending on tourism activities, TTF found that the total spending is highest in NSW (29%). The spending is comprised of domestic daytrip, domestic overnight and international overnight. It can be seen from the following graph that, in 2015-2016, the international overnight spending is maximum in NSW.

These charts and figures indicate that NSW has attracted the maximum number of international visitors in the past few years. It has also invested the maximum amount, which helped to get the maximum return from the growth of international visitor arrivals.

Growth of International Tourism in Australia and New South Wales

The NSW government published in its news that in 2017, NSW attracted over 3.9 million overnight international tourists, which is a 10% increase than in 2016 (Tra.gov.au, 2017). Sydney maintained its position as the most popular capital city in Australia with a record high of 781,000 international tourists. China is the biggest market for tourism, as almost 700,000 Chinese tourists visited NSW in 2017. They spent almost $3 billion in the NSW economy. Apart from China, the number of visits from Korea, India, Japan and Indonesia has increased significantly and the markets grew more than 15% (Nsw.gov.au, 2017).

Destination NSW is the official site of the provider of statistical data and its analysis on the tourism in NSW. It uses the data published by The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to analyze the trends in Overseas Arrivals and Departures (OAD) in NSW. According to the snapshots of the OAD in NSW, International Travel to NSW and NSW International Visitation, for the year ending in 2017, published by Destination NSW, it is found that,

It is found that, among the top tourist activities in Australia, 93.7% overnight international visitors preferred to eat out or dine out a restaurants and cafes in NSW, 78.1% preferred to go for sightseeing and exploring, 78% went for shopping in NSW, 70.4% spent their time in the beaches and 53.7% chose to visit the national or state parks (Destinationnsw.com.au, 2018).

As seen from the above graph, among the overnight international visitors to NSW, the biggest age group is 15 – 29 years (30.7%), followed by 30-39 years (17.7%) and 50-59 years (16.2%).

The categories of the purpose of travel for the international visitors are holiday, visiting friends and relatives (VFR), business, employment, and education (tra.gov.au., 2017). According to Destination NSW (2017), the contribution of different purpose visits by the international tourists in NSW is shown below.

It is seen that, educational visits contributed maximum (36%) in the economy of NSW in 2017, followed by holiday purpose visits (33%) and VFR (14%).

China and India lead the growth in the VFR category. According to a report by Productivity Commission of the Australian Government (2015), NSW is a destination for holiday, VFR and education and hence, earns revenue from these categories.

From the above data and its presentation, it can be said that, NSW is leading the tourism market in Australia. In the past few years, especially, since 2012, the international visitor arrival, overnight visitors, and total spending have increased significantly in NSW. In almost all category of the purpose of visit for the international tourists, NSW has been able to capture the largest share. Among all other destinations in the entire nation, Sydney achieved the record of receiving the maximum number of international visitors, overnight staying and total expenditure. In the year ending December 2017, Sydney received 3.9 million global tourists, who stayed 79.7 million nights and incurred an expenditure of $9.4 billion. The figures for the regional NSW are also impressive. It achieved 852,500 global visitors, with 14.7 million nights and $1.05 billion (Destinationnsw.com.au, 2018). It attracted highest visitor growth from top markets, China, India, Canada, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Investments and Spending on Tourism in New South Wales

The NSW government and tourism department have focused considerably on increasing the level of investment. As seen from the report of TTF, NSW invests almost 30% (around $9 billion) for promoting tourism and improving the facilities and destinations (Atec.net.au, 2017). With the growing number of tourists, it is worth of investing for NSW. Destination NSW has been taking quite a few important initiatives for substantially increasing the tourism market funding, increasing the investment in business, cultural and sporting events, building supporting infrastructure for transport and for a second airport in western Sydney, campaigning for shared cruise access to the Garden Island, developing strategy for tourism and transport in NSW, introducing Opal Card for Sydney visitors and improving regional transport infrastructure (Ttf.org.au, 2015).

NSW comprises many attractions other than Sydney. The other popular attractions are Blue Mountains National Park, Snowy Mountains, Hunter Valley, Coffs Harbour, Byron Bay, South Coast, Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island, Port Stephens, Outback NSW and the Australian capital city Canberra. The 10 initiatives taken by the NSW government in collaboration with the Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF) and Destination NSW aim to improve the overall condition of regional NSW through enhancement of transport systems, support of the cultural and heritage, and encouragement of sustainable tourism (Ttf.org.au, 2017). Since, NSW already receives the highest number of international visitors, overnight spending and total consumption, the government aims to increase the number by providing enhanced infrastructure and transport facilities and innovative tourism ideas (Atec.net.au, 2017). The education sector of NSW also attracts a large number of international tourists every year. Hence, with the quality of education offered by the NSW institutions, the number of visits is expected to grow over the years. The growing scope of business is also expected to attract more international visitors from countries like China, India, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong. Tourism in NSW generates almost $37.1 billion in consumption and directly contributes $15 to the total Gross State Product (GSP). It also provides employment opportunities for more than 171,000 people around the state (Ttf.org.au, 2017). Thus, with the initiatives taken by the government and budget allocated for the programs, the economy of NSW is expected to benefit.

Conclusion

New South Wales holds the two most important cities in Australia, Sydney and Canberra. These cities, especially Sydney contributes largely in the economy of NSW as well as for the entire nation. Sydney has been termed as the tourism capital of Australia. By analyzing the secondary data collected from various government and official websites, it is seen that NSW as well as Sydney have been receiving the highest number of international tourists for the past few years. The number of overnights visitor and total spending are also highest for NSW. The major market for Australian tourism is China, India, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. It is also found that, people majorly visit NSW for holiday purpose, followed by education and visit to friends and family (VFR). The NSW government, in collaboration with other tourism sector organizations, has been taking initiatives and allocating budget for those. It is expected that, the number of international visits to NSW will grow in the future once the initiatives will be undertaken to improve the infrastructure for transport, business activities and cultural events.

References

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