Strong growth in tourism over the past few years has seen it overtake industries such as agriculture, mining?and manufacturing, contributing $115m a day to the Australian economy.
According to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), tourism grew 3.7% during 2012-13, compared to 2.4% for the economy as a whole.
With the increase, direct tourism added $42bn to Australia’s gross domestic product for the year.
?International tourism was particularly solid, up 5.7% and showed the strongest growth we’ve seen since 2006-07,? said Sean Thompson from the ABS.
?The increase was mostly due to strong growth in the number of international visitors, up 4.9%,?while the average spend in Australia on international trips was largely unchanged on the previous year at approximately $4,300 per trip.?
While not as strong as international, domestic tourism was up 3.4% over the past two years.
Despite record?numbers of Australians travelling overseas, Australian tourists spent less during overseas trips in 2012-13, down about $200 per trip from 2011-12 to just over $4,540.
The tourism industry employed 543,600 people throughout Australia last financial year, an increase of 11,400, with employment growing at 2.1%, nearly double the rate for the economy as a whole which grew at 1.2%.
Hours worked in tourism increased by 1%, compared with 0.4% overall for the economy, with tourism contributing 8.9% of Australia’s total export earnings in 2012-13.
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