More people are going to Australia each year, while fewer Australians are going abroad, and that’s working out pretty well for the country’s economy. In fact, tourism is currently bringing in about $47 billion, while food exports and coal are bringing in in $42 and $41 billion each, respectively. While iron ore is still Australia’s number-one export, tourism is now the second largest factor in the economy.
There are a number of reasons for this, but the relative weakness of the Australian dollar in comparison to other foreign currency is a significant one. So while people from the United States or the European Union do well when traveling to Australia, in that their money stretched further, the inverse is also true. Australians traveling abroad have to spend more to buy less in a number of places. The end result is that Australia, with its beaches and various tourist destinations, is drawing in an increasing amount of traffic, including Australians.
“The number of short-term arrival to Australia is now rising at the cracking pace of 10 percent a year, whereas growth in the number of people heading overseas has halved to just 3 percent,” Clancy Yeates wrote in an article in the Brisbane Times.
Just because travel abroad is expensive doesn’t mean Australians aren’t traveling. Instead, they’re visiting other parts of the country in record numbers, which is further shoring up the tourism industry, because much of that is actually the service industry at work.
Hotels, resorts, and especially restaurants and bars, do well in tourism booms, because people who live in Melbourne or other cities don’t stay in hotels there very often, and they likely don’t eat out as often as visitors, because it’s simply not financially viable. But visitors can pump a lot of money into the local economy, which all ends up boosting the nation as a whole.
While tourism may not bring in enough money to put Australia’s dollar on the same level as that of other former British holdings, or of the European Union, it is having a positive effect on the country. More tourism means more jobs, which means more people making more money, all of which is good for the country as a whole.