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Japanese deserting Oz

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Catherine Deshayes

The Japanese love affair with Australia is on the wane - whilst the credit crunch has certainly led to falling tourist numbers as people shun long haul holidays in a bid to save the pennies, Japanese tourist operators in Australia have revealed that not only are numbers down, but their industry is on the verge of collapse...

Traditionally, Australia has been a hugely popular holiday destination for Japanese travelers, who flocked to the country to enjoy the climate, beaches and wildlife. Fast forward to the credit crunch and tourist numbers in Australia have dropped off dramatically, with the biggest fall being in visitors from Japan.

Arrival and departure figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show a 4.7 per cent drop in June compared with the same time last year.

The biggest fall was in visitors from Japan, with 44 per cent (12,600 people) less over the year. China and Korea both fell by almost 21 per cent and Hong Kong by 18 per cent.

Tourism and Transport Forum Managing Director Christopher Brown said Asian countries were especially sensitive to disease outbreaks.

The global recession and swine flu have both played a large part in these dwindling numbers, but Japanese tourist companies have also laid part of the blame at the door of Tourism Australia, which they say has used a ‘one-dimensional marketing strategy' that has been losing steam since the mid-1990s.

For example, research showed that the top reason Japanese tourists visited Oz was to stroke a koala, whilst Tourism Australia still pictures large groups of camera-wielding tourists following tour guides around the big cities.

Tourists have now been found to be more likely to be younger and looking for ‘soft adventure' trips.

"There has to be a much more focused approach specific to the interests of Japanese tourists. They're very much looking to get their hands dirty," found the research.

Whilst the number of Japanese visitors is in decline, it has been predicted that Chinese an Indian tourists will become increasingly common sights at Australia's major attractions, with the number of visitors from those countries expected to skyrocket over the next decade.

Projections from the Tourism Forecasting Committee show 900,000 tourists a year will be arriving in Oz from China in 2018, up from 356,000 last year.

The easy overnight flights and safe, westernised feel of Oz have been named as the reasons behind this expected influx of new blood.

Picture by safaris