A detailed analysis of “Holiday”-specific inbound travel data for Australia during Mar has confirmed an ongoing slowdown, according to John O’Shea, senior research analyst from Ord Minnett.
He said the annual holiday growth rate now sat at 1.7%, and “is consistent with a material slowing over recent times”.
Chinese arrivals were relatively weak in Mar but that followed a bumper Feb due to the timing of Chinese New Year, and were tracking up 11.9% year on year.
There’s also been strong growth in holiday arrivals from Hong Kong, up 30.7% along with increases for Taiwan (+6.6%), South Korea (+5.7%) and India, which increased by 2.3% compared to Mar 2017.
In non-Asian markets, Inbound Holiday visitation from the US was up 4.3%, but holidaymakers from the UK declined 10% year-on-year.
There were also decreases from France and Germany, while holiday arrivals from New Zealand continue to languish, with a year-on-year drop of 7.7%.
Source: traveldaily