Australia's peak tourism industry group has warned whoever forms the next federal government to pay close attention to a growing "black hole" in the country's tourism trade deficit.
Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF) boss Christopher Brown says the problem has been highlighted by figures released on Friday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Mr Brown said there's good reason to believe confidence is returning to international tourism but he warned that the number of Aussies flying overseas for holidays in July was still more than 100,000 greater than the number of visitors the nation attracted for the month.
"For the year to the end of July, the difference is almost 1.1 million people, which is contributing to a projected tourism balance of trade deficit for 2010/11 of up to $9 billion," he said.
"This burgeoning black hole should be cause for concern for which party forms the next Australian government, and deserves urgent attention."
The figures also showed a jump of 11 per cent in international tourist arrivals into Australia over the year to July, which the TTF has put down largely to the recovery of visitor numbers from Asian countries hit hard by the swine flu epidemic in 2009.
International arrivals from China rose 55.6 per cent (up 17,000 to 47,600), Japanese arrivals jumped 67 per cent to 35,600 and Hong Kong increased by 21.7 per cent to 16,800.
Mr Brown said these markets were badly affected by the swine flu outbreak in July 2009.
"North Asian tourists were especially sensitive to the swine flu epidemic, and we saw significant falls in arrivals from most of those countries in July last year," Mr Brown said in a statement.
"The good news is ... they have resumed travelling to Australia, with arrivals from north Asia up 40 per cent.
"Compared to last year, Australia welcomed an additional 51,000 visitors in July, with China and Japan accounting for more than 60 per cent of that increase."
AAP
