8 million visitors: Australia sets new tourism record

14 NOVEMBER 2016: AUSTRALIA welcomed more than eight million international tourists over the past 12 months and the benefits have flowed to North Queensland, especially the Whitsundays. This year’s results from the Australian Bureau of Statistics is the first time Australia has broken the eight million visitor mark. The more international tourists we have coming to Australia, the more we can try and get them to visit North Queensland. I am focused on attracting more visitors to our beautiful region to grow our tourism industry and support local businesses.Since 2013, growth in the tourism industry has supercharged, with visitor numbers breaking the six, seven, and now eight million mark. This rapid rise has come on the back of strong Liberal National Government support for the tourism industry. The tourism industry is growing three times faster under the Liberal National Government than it was under the previous Labor Government.The Government’s support for the tourism industry hasn’t happened by accident. The Liberal National Government:

• Removed Labor’s carbon tax, which slugged the tourism sector more than $115 million in its first year alone;
• Stopped Labor’s cuts to Tourism Australia and invested a record $639 million in Tourism Australia to promote Australia internationally;
• Increased the number of markets that have access to online visa lodgement from 72 to over 200, including China, India and Indonesia;
• Announced a new 10-year multiple entry visitor visa to encourage repeat visitation from China;
• Made visa applications available online in Simplified Chinese – the first time Australia has trialled visa application lodgement in a language other than English; and
• Expanded international aviation capacity, including a tripling of gateway capacity between Australia and China.

Australia’s growth in the tourism sector continues to support North Queensland small businesses and generate local jobs. To drive further growth from our largest tourism market the Prime Minister and Chinese President have jointly designated 2017 as the Australia-China Year of Tourism.