Melburnian1
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2013
- Posts
- 25,483
This is not what one might expect given our so-called 'low' A$, but travellers from overseas coming to Oz for any reason (lesiure, visiting friends and relatives, business, education and so on) only rose by 2.7 per cent in May 2015 compared with the same month in 2014.
Since in the year to May arrivals had increased by roughly eight per cent, the downwards trend is noticeable:
http://www.tourism.australia.com/documents/ABSarrivalsMay15.pdf
Have a look at how poorly many major origin nations performed in May 2015 in supplying tourists to Oz. With the exception of a few bright spots such as NZ, the UK, mainland China, Philippines, India, Spain, Switzerland and Vietnam, there were a lot of countries who sent fewer travellers to Australia in May 2015 than they did in May 2014.
This is also occurring with Australians making outbound trips, which is logical as some Australians choose not to travel at all (or as often) overseas given how our dollar now buys less (although the effect has not been uniform for all currencies - quite variable.)
Should this 'both ways' trend continue (even despite low oil prices), it cannot be many months before quite a few international carriers think hard about reducing the frequency of flights to and from Oz, or where they can substituting smaller aircraft.
Some operators will get around this in inventive ways. For instance, AFF has highlighted how EK is reducing its frequency to and from PER but substituting a larger aircraft on one trip if I recall.
Other factors will also come into play: MH's desire to reduce its losses is one, although it was a surprise that it is pulling out of BNE.
Since in the year to May arrivals had increased by roughly eight per cent, the downwards trend is noticeable:
http://www.tourism.australia.com/documents/ABSarrivalsMay15.pdf
Have a look at how poorly many major origin nations performed in May 2015 in supplying tourists to Oz. With the exception of a few bright spots such as NZ, the UK, mainland China, Philippines, India, Spain, Switzerland and Vietnam, there were a lot of countries who sent fewer travellers to Australia in May 2015 than they did in May 2014.
This is also occurring with Australians making outbound trips, which is logical as some Australians choose not to travel at all (or as often) overseas given how our dollar now buys less (although the effect has not been uniform for all currencies - quite variable.)
Should this 'both ways' trend continue (even despite low oil prices), it cannot be many months before quite a few international carriers think hard about reducing the frequency of flights to and from Oz, or where they can substituting smaller aircraft.
Some operators will get around this in inventive ways. For instance, AFF has highlighted how EK is reducing its frequency to and from PER but substituting a larger aircraft on one trip if I recall.
Other factors will also come into play: MH's desire to reduce its losses is one, although it was a surprise that it is pulling out of BNE.
