SIGNIFICANT growth in tourists visiting Australia has created around 364 infrastructure projects across a range of areas according to Tourism Australia Managing Director Phillipa Harrison.
Speaking at the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE), Harrison said that over the next few years Australia was expecting “an additional 5 million people” – growth that meant significant investment in infrastructure was required to keep up.
“This is from Tourism Research Australia – they have quantified all of the infrastructure development that is going to cater for all those new arrivals and new routes coming in, and there’s around 364 projects,” Harrison shared.
“About half of those are in experiences, arts and culture and about half are accommodation projects as well.”
She said one of the reasons ATE was in Brisbane for its 45th running was to mark the opening of “an incredible piece of infrastructure” with The Star opening, but suggested the infrastructure investment spread far and wide across Australia.
“[There] is a lot of growth and that is why we need that infrastructure capacity,” Harrison admitted.
Growth was coming from across the board but especially Asia.
“You can see that Asia, being close to us, is really growing quite fast but our markets are going to still largely be the same markets that are currently important for Australia,” Harrison added.
According to the Global Travel Service from Oxford Economics, projected visitation of Tourism Australia’s 15 core markets has Greater China at 2.48 million, New Zealand at 1.99 million, the USA at 1.13 million, and 13.19 million international visitors in total for the year ending December 2029.
