Australia's outbound tourism growing 25 times faster than inbound

According to Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF) the ABS’s Overseas Arrivals and Departures figures for July underscore the strength of the Australian economy compared to other developed countries, with outbound travel by Australians growing more than 25 times faster than international arrivals in 2011.

Overseas travel by Australians is up 10.3 per cent so far this year (January to July inclusive) compared to inbound growth of 0.4 per cent.

Monthly departures rose 11.0 per cent over July 2010, while arrivals fell 1.7 per cent. In the year ending July 2011, Australians took 7.51 million international trips (up 10.1 per cent) while 5.90 million international visitors came to Australia (up 2.7 per cent), pushing the ‘tourist deficit’ to another record high of 1.61 million.