There's one big omission in a brand new top-10 of nations whose travellers plan to go to Australia now our borders are open: China.
Earlier than the pandemic hit, vacationers from China accounted for nearly a 3rd of all travellers into Australia and so they had been by far the largest spenders, generously opening their wallets at cities and vacationer scorching spots from coast-to-coast.
In 2019, 1.4 million Chinese language vacationers spent a whopping $12.2 billion - a couple of quarter of your complete worldwide tourism spend - in line with knowledge supplied to 9news.com.au by Australia's peak tourism physique, the Tourism and Transport Discussion board.
That vast Chinese language spend has fallen off a cliff, plunging 99.4 per cent to only $76 million in 2021, TFF figures present.
World journey web site Expedia at the moment revealed its top-10 origin nations for inbound worldwide flights to Australia, primarily based on flight demand in February.
The US got here first, with vacationers from the UK and Canada rounding out a high three.
New Zealand, which normally sits second simply behind China for whole vacationers visiting Australia, is ranked sixth.
Expedia additionally developed a top-10 of Australian vacation spot cities vacationers will go to, topped by Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Since Australia slammed its borders shut, the tourism sector has been hemorrhaging round $4 billion each month, Margy Osmond, TTF chief govt, mentioned.
"That may be a large amount of money. And it isn't simply tourism, but additionally ancillary markets," she mentioned, pointing to sectors like hospitality, laundry and rent vehicles who're all hurting.
Australia has misplaced a complete era of employees within the tourism business over the previous two years, she mentioned.
A TTF survey throughout the sector final 12 months confirmed a 3rd of all tourism companies nervous they might be worn out this 12 months.
In the present day's reopening was great information, Ms Osmond mentioned, however tempered expectations by saying "clearly it'll take us a short time to get again to the pre-pandemic numbers".
Ms Osmond mentioned the dramatic fall in vacationers from China and New Zealand was a significant concern, notably as travellers from each nations nonetheless face quarantine measures once they return house.
The COVID-19 instructions out of Beijing and Wellington was impeding any actual elevate off in tourism from each nations.
Travellers from Japan, one other essential Australian inbound market, are additionally at present unable to journey freely Down Beneath.
In an try to fill the footprint left by China, Ms Osmond mentioned there was "robust curiosity" from the UK, US and Europe markets, and she or he implored the federal government to maintain spending massive on advertising campaigns globally to let the world know Australia is open once more.
It was additionally crucial that the Federal Authorities elevate the ban on cruise ships as quickly as potential, she mentioned.
That ban, which has blocked all cruise ships within the multi-billion-dollar business from docking at Australian ports since March 2020, has just lately prolonged from February to April.
Ms Osmond anticipated this 12 months to mark the beginning of "a protracted and difficult" street to restoration.
"However it'll take a while and simply because we at the moment are open doesn't suggest the identical variety of vacationers will begin flooding our shores."
Tourism was Australia's fifth most precious export pre-pandemic, in line with the Australian Commerce and Funding Fee.
Phrases: Mark Saunokonoko
Interactive graphics: Tara Blancato