Asian tourism collapse worsens job loss uncertainty

The Japanese tourist market, which had been the third-most lucrative in 2007, all but collapsed last year, with visitor numbers dropping by 20.2 per cent, or 115,600 people, figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday show. The number of tourists from South Korea who visited Australia in 2008 also dropped 14 per cent, while the number from Taiwan fell by 16 per cent.

Overall the number of international visitors to Australia in 2008 was down 1 per cent on the previous year, the first year since 2003 it has fallen.

The executive director of the Tourism and Transport Forum, Olivia Wirth, said the implosion of the Japanese market was a major concern in an industry bracing for mass job losses.

"It has affected the whole industry, not just the cities. Far North Queensland, particularly Cairns, have been the hardest hit, markets that were once reliant on Japanese tourists," she said.

Ms Wirth said the industry was steeling itself for an expected 4 per cent drop this year.

A survey by the Tourism and Transport Forum released last Friday predicted two-thirds of tourism operators would have to cut their workforce in the coming year as international visitor numbers dropped off.

The 2008 figures may have been bolstered by World Youth Day, held in Sydney last winter, which attracted an estimated 110,000 international visitors.

There was a 26 per cent increase in the number of visitors from Spain, 10 per cent from Italy and 16 per cent from France. There was also an 11 per cent rise in the number of visitors from the Philippines, which has a majority Catholic population.

Tourism Australia seized on the 22 per cent rise in tourist numbers from India and the relatively small 1 per cent decline from the US yesterday.

"[The figures show] we are seeing some markets, like the US and parts of Asia, holding up [until] relatively late last year," a spokesman said.