Australian tourist arrivals continue to grow

The latest Overseas Arrivals and Departures figures, released on Monday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), showed that visitors from China grew by 14 percent in November 2012, buoyed by the additional seat capacity created by the introduction of direct flights from Shanghai to Cairns. Australia's overseas arrivals have continued to grow strongly through 2012, recording almost seven percent growth in November 2012 to reach 6.1 million visitors in the 12 months to November 2012. Minister for Tourism Martin Ferguson said in a statement the increased capacity was evidence of the strength of the Australian market. "The increase in arrivals will assist industry meet the Tourism 2020 goal of 140 billion AU dollars (almost 147.45 billion U.S. dollars) in overnight expenditure," he said. "The Australian Government is working with the states and territories to reduce red tape and implement regulatory reform to assist in building the 40,000 new accommodation rooms that will be needed by 2020."