Losing $62 million in revenue could be considered careless

Okay, it’s been a tough year, but it could have been worse. Imagine if you ran a business where the average yield was up 12 per cent to $6171, but the number of customers you’d welcomed through your doors had fallen by 10,000. Imagine seeing nearly $62 million in potential revenue go up in smoke.

Actually, you don’t have to imagine because that’s precisely what’s happened to the Australian backpacking industry in the last 12 months. The latest Tourism Australia International Visitor Survey shows backpackers stayed longer and spent more money during that period – but there were 10,000 fewer of them compared to the previous year.

The industry might be worth $3.44 billion to the Australian economy, but the figure would’ve topped $3.5 billion if visitor numbers had remained stable. That’s one hell of a wasted opportunity.

Clearly, global economic factors had an impact, but even among source countries worst affected by the GFC and punitive exchange rates such as the UK, spend and length of stay in Australia both increased.

If I was incoming Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy, one of the first questions I’d be asking is what the organisation can do to bring more of these high-spending customers to our shores.

Once they’re here, the industry will take care of the rest.

By Martin Lane  ·  December 9th, 2009 at 1:11 pm

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