Australia sees inbound business hold steady

By Miles Clarke HONG KONG Business travel to Australia, especially in the incentive travel sector, is proving remarkably robust, according to the Australian Tourist Commission. In the wake of last year's Dreamtime promotion, which brought more than 120 incentive travel buyers to Australia in July, a record US$20million worth of future business has been confirmed over the next two years as a consequence of Dreamtime 2001. Dreamtime has produced US$13million in incentive travel in recent years. Much of the current growth can be attributed to a surge in interest from Asian countries. "We see excellent growth from Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Thailand in the incentive market," Hong Kong-based Australian Tourist Commission regional manager north-east Asia Mr Johnny Nee said. "There is little doubt that the exposure created by the Olympic Games is having an impact in Asia. Australia is generally perceived as being a safe destination and this helps drive incentive business Australia's way." The quality of tourism infrastructure for large groups was also a factor. He said obtaining visas to visit Australia from China had significantly eased over the past few years, but Indonesian travellers were being investigated by immigration officials more rigorously than before. Mr Nee said the softening economic outlook in south-east Asia could result in budgets being tightened in the short term but overall the market looked positive. The ATC anticipated a downturn in visitors of around 1% for 2001. Asia currently accounts for 40% of Australia's inbound visitor traffic. This is forecast to rise to around 50% in the next eight years.