International Visitation to the Northern Territory Year ending September 2017
The following is a summary of information relevant to the Northern Territory (NT) tourism industry including visitation results from Tourism Research Australia s International Visitor Survey, overseas and arrivals information from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and airport traffic data from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics. This report was been prepared by the Strategic Research team in December 2017. Estimates in this report are based on survey data and therefore affected by sampling variation. The table below summarises the samples and Confidence Intervals (CI) for the NT. Sample size International Visitor numbers CI Visitor nights Year ending September 2017 1,735 +/-6% +/-15% Year ending September 2016 1,943 +/-6% +/-15% INTERNATIONAL VISITORS IN THE NORTHERN TERRITORY YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 2017 VISITORS 289,000 NIGHTS 3.8 MILLION -1.5% -1.3% For more information on the International Visitor Survey methodology please visit Tourism Research Australia s website Disclaimer: The Department of Tourism and Culture has taken due care and skill in preparing this information, however does not warrant that it is correct or suitable for the purpose for which it is intended to be used. The Department disclaims all liability associated with the use of this information. EXPENDITURE $465 MILLION +5.7%
Summary of the International Market for the Top End and Central Australia There were 131,000 international visitors travelling to the Top End for all purposes in the YE September 2017, which represents a decline of -6.1% when compared to YE September 2016. Visitor nights for the Top End were also down (-8.1% to 2.6 million nights) but spend went up with +13% to $209 million. These results were reflected in the average spend per trip going up with +21% to $1,602 and the average length of stay keeping steady (down -0.4 nights to 19.9 nights). Central Australia, on the other hand, experienced an increase in international visitation for all purposes for the YE September 2017 (up +2.9% to 206,000 visitors and up +18% to 1.2 million visitor nights). Whilst spend remained steady (up +0.3% to $256 million), there was a slight decrease in average spend per trip (down -2.5% to $1,244) due to visitor numbers increasing, more than spend. The average length of stay for Central Australia moved from 5.1 to 5.8 nights. International holiday visitation followed a similar pattern for the Top End and Central Australia as visitors for all purposes for the YE September 2017. This is mainly due to holiday visitors making up 75% of all visits to the Top End and 97% of all visits to Central Australia. While the Top End experienced a decrease in visitors numbers and nights (down -5.5% to 97,000 holiday visitors and down -17% to 1.0 million visitor nights), Central Australia experienced growth for the same metrics (up +2.2% to 199,000 holiday visitors and up +9.3% to 888,000 visitor nights). Holiday visitation from the United States was up for the Top End, although holiday visitors from Germany, France and the Netherlands decreased. The markets with the highest growth for Central Australia were Greater China and Germany, with less holiday visitors from France and the United States. Please refer to the Regional Profiles on our corporate site for more information on NT regions. INTERNATIONAL VISITATION SUMMARY FOR THE TOP END All purpose of visit Year ending September 2016 2017 INTERNATIONAL VISITATION SUMMARY FOR CENTRAL AUSTRALIA Holiday 2016 2017 Visitors ('000) 139 131-6.1% 103 97-5.5% Visitor nights ('000) 2,829 2,599-8.1% 1,245 1,031-17% Expenditure ($ million) 185 209 13% Average length of stay (nights) 20.4 19.9-0.4 12.1 10.6-1.5 Average spend per trip ($) 1,329 1,602 21% Visitor market share of Australia (%) 1.9 1.6-0.2pp 2.5 2.2-0.3pp Visitor market share of the NT (%) 47 45-2.2pp 41 39-1.8pp All purpose of visit Year ending September 2016 2017 Holiday 2016 2017 Visitors ('000) 200 206 2.9% 194 199 2.2% Visitor nights ('000) 1,016 1,195 18% 812 888 9.3% Expenditure ($ million) 255 256 0.3% Average length of stay (nights) 5.1 5.8 0.7 4.2 4.5 0.3 Average spend per trip ($) 1,276 1,244-2.5% Visitor market share of Australia (%) 2.7 2.6-0.1pp 4.7 4.5-0.2pp Visitor market share of the NT (%) 68 71 3.0pp 77 79 2.5pp
Summary of the International Market for the Northern Territory For the NT overall, there were 289,000 international visitors who travelled to the Territory for all purposes during YE September 2017. This result was a slight decrease on the previous year of -1.5%. International visitor nights for all purposes to the NT were also down slightly with -1.3% to 3.8 million nights. These results were in part due to a decline in holiday visitation (down -1.1%, or 3,000, to 250,000 visitors) and employment visitation (down -24% to 10,000 visitors). Increases in the number of international visitors travelling for business (up +11% to 11,000 visitors) and to visit friends or relatives (up +5.8% to 19,000 visitors) were not sufficient to offset this decline as they were off a lower base. In contrast to visitor numbers and nights, spend was up for the NT with +5.7% to $465 million for international visitors for all purposes compared to YE September 2016. This was partly due to the NT attracting more numbers from markets with a higher average spending such as Greater China. While the NT experienced a decrease in international visitor numbers for YE September 2017, all other Australian jurisdictions experienced growth overall (i.e. visitation for all purposes) as well as for the holiday sector. The number of international visitors to Australia increased by +7.3%, with the ACT, Tasmania and New South Wales the strongest contributors to this percentage growth. The NT was the only jurisdiction that experienced a declining rate well below the national average, contributing to the Territory s visitor market share dropping by -0.3 percentage points (pp) to 3.6% for YE September 2017. Key results from the NT holiday market: The NT received 250 000 international holiday travellers (down - 1.1%), spending $348 million (up +3.8%) and staying approximately 1.9 million visitor nights (down -6.7%). The key performing holiday markets for the NT for YE September 2017 were Greater China up +61% or an extra 6,000 holiday visitors, and Scandinavia up +50% or an extra 3,000 visitors. The markets of Canada and Switzerland also experienced slighter growth (up +7.6% and +6.3% respectively with just under 1,000 visitors each). The largest decline came from the United States (down -6.7% or 3,000 visitors), the United Kingdom (down -3.8% or 1,500 visitors), the Netherlands (down -21% or 1,500 visitors), and France (down -8,7% or 1,500 visitors). Smaller declines (i.e. less than 1,000 visitors) were seen for Germany (down -1.3%), Japan (down -3.2%) and Italy (down -7.4%). INTERNATIONAL VISITATION SUMMARY FOR THE NORTHERN TERRITORY All purpose of visit Year ending September 2016 2017 Holiday 2016 2017 Visitors ('000) 293 289-1.5% 253 250-1.1% Visitor nights ('000) 3,847 3,796-1.3% 2,057 1,919-6.7% Expenditure ($ million) 440 465 5.7% 335 348 3.8% Average length of stay (nights) 13.1 13.2 0.02 8.1 7.7-0.5 Average spend per trip ($) 1,501 1,611 7.3% 1,326 1,391 4.9% Visitor market share (%) 3.9 3.6-0.3pp 6.1 5.7-0.4pp
INTERNATIONAL VISITATION TRENDS TO THE NT INTERNATIONAL VISITOR AVERAGE LENGTH OF STAY TREND TO THE NT INTERNATIONAL VISITOR EXPENDITURE TRENDS TO THE NT HOLIDAY VISITATION BY NT OVERSEAS MARKETS Note: All other purpose includes business, visiting friends and relatives, employment, education, other reasons, transit and not asked
INTERNATIONAL VISITORS BY KEY SOURCE MARKETS TO THE NT AND AUSTRALIA (ALL PURPOSE OF VISIT) Country of residence Rank AAGR: Average Annual Growth Rate Greater China: includes Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China YE Sep 16 ('000) Northern Territory YE Sep 17 ('000) % 3 Year AAGR Market share Rank YE Sep 16 ('000) Australia YE Sep 17 ('000) % United States of America 1 51.1 49.3-3.5% 9.4% 6.9% 3 648.1 712.0 9.9% 8.9% United Kingdom 2 41.3 41.3-0.1% -0.3% 6.1% 4 667.0 676.5 1.4% 2.2% Germany 3 31.2 31.3 0.4% -0.4% 16% 6 189.7 200.2 5.5% 3.4% Japan 4 22.0 20.9-4.8% -4.0% 5.3% 5 365.0 395.5 8.4% 9.7% Greater China 5 12.8 18.3 44% 9.2% 1.1% 1 1,460.6 1,632.5 12% 11% France 6 16.9 15.9-6.1% -4.1% 13% 8 115.5 119.8 3.7% 1.7% Italy 7 12.4 11.6-6.2% 2.1% 16% 10 71.5 72.7 1.6% 1.2% New Zealand 8 17.4 11.6-33% -10% 0.9% 2 1,214.8 1,224.6 0.8% 1.4% Scandinavia 9 6.7 10.1 52% 5.2% 9.8% 9 100.5 103.9 3.4% 3.2% Switzerland 10 9.2 9.8 6.8% -1.6% 19% 12 51.3 51.9 1.2% 0.6% Canada 11 10.1 8.6-14% -4.1% 5.7% 7 137.7 152.7 11% 4.2% Netherlands 12 7.5 6.2-18% -4.5% 12% 11 47.0 52.7 12% 6.1% Other Europe 24.5 19.8-19% 0.2% 8.6% 217.5 230.1 5.8% 3.0% Other Asia 22.1 24.3 9.9% 5.2% 1.3% 1,700.8 1,868.5 9.9% 8.2% Other Countries 7.9 9.5 21% -1.4% 1.9% 457.7 493.7 7.9% 4.2% Total 293.0 288.6-1.5% 1.0% 3.6% 7,444.7 7,987.3 7.3% 6.1% 3 Year AAGR PURPOSE OF VISITING THE NT LEISURE^ VISITOR DISPERSAL TO NT REGIONS YE Sep YE Sep 17 % of NT NT Regions % 16 ('000) ('000) visitors Top End 116 110-4.9% 42% Greater Darwin 109 104-4.5% 39% Kakadu Arnhem 33 31-5.9% 12% Katherine Daly 37 39 7.7% 15% Central Australia 196 201 2.5% 76% Alice Springs - MacDonnell 114 120 4.8% 45% Barkly 15 18 14% 6.6% Lasseter 160 164 2.5% 62% ^ Leisure travel includes holiday and visiting friends and relatives
AGE GROUPS NT LEISURE^ TRAVELLERS NT HOLIDAY SOURCE MARKET SUMMARY * * * *Caution required when interpreting results due to low sample (<40) INTERNATIONAL MARKETS TO THE NT KEY STATS YE June 2017 Nights ('000) Expenditu re ($M) ALOS (nights) Average spend per visitor ($) Average spend per night ($) % repeat leisure^ to Australia % on a holiday United States of America 412 82 8.4 1,662 199 25% 86% United Kingdom 414 57 10.0 1,390 139 45% 91% Germany 336 46 10.7 1,485 138 40% 95% Japan 174 28 8.3 1,339 161 31% 90% Greater China 310 35 16.9 1,886 112 55% 90% New Zealand 99 16 8.5 1,394 164 97% 70% France 329 32 20.7 2,033 98 29% 91% Italy 93 19 8.0 1,605 200 24% 98% Canada 106 13 12.3 1,499 122 17% 95% Scandinavia 103 13 10.2 1,318 129 22% 94% Switzerland 83 20 8.5 2,025 239 31% 100% Netherlands 86 8 14.0 1,282 92 31% 92% ALOS - Average length of stay ^ Leisure travel includes holiday and visiting friends and relatives 15-29 years 30-39 years 40-49 years 50-64 years 65+ years
Passenger numbers Arrivals MONTHLY MOVEMENT THROUGH THE DARWIN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT International Short Term Visitor Arrivals 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep YE Sep 16 5,730 3,521 3,681 2,753 2,860 3,361 2,941 3,856 4,134 6,479 5,376 4,711 YE Sep 17 4,723 3,551 3,278 3,451 3,804 3,253 3,382 3,935 5,470 6,597 5,584 5,236 International Visitor Numbers and Spend by State Excerpt from TRA s International Visitor Survey Summary Source: Department of Immigration and Border Protection 20,000 18,000 16,000 14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 TRAFFIC ON BOARD INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES Darwin International Inbound Revenue Passenger 0 Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep YE Sep 16 11,222 9,269 8,199 14,691 9,106 8,824 9,808 10,481 10,734 15,791 12,553 11,777 YE Sep 17 12,234 9,560 8,924 17,466 10,799 9,524 11,407 10,377 11,386 14671 11606 11525 City of arrival for international leisure visitors to the Northern Territory One in seven leisure visitors to the Northern Territory entered Australia through the Darwin International Airport Source: Bureau of infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics