The picturesque region of Phillip Island is a key reason why Australia has broken the eight million international visitor mark for the first time.
Growth in the international tourism industry across Australia is great news for our local region, with world class beaches, fine dining, the award winning Phillip Island Nature Parks and serene walking tracks, it’s no wonder people travel en-masse to the Island.
An increase in the number of international visitors will strengthen and develop small business, whilst stimulating new jobs in a variety of sectors.
Since 2013, growth in the tourism industry has supercharged with visitor numbers breaking the six, seven, and now eight million mark nationally.
Similarly at a regional level, over the past three years, numbers of international tourist visitations to regional Victoria have risen from 319,516 to 489,785 and the appeal of Phillip Island is a significant reason for this rapid growth. Economically, tourism is crucial to our region as it employs over 1,200 people and it generates $209 million in economic output.
This continued growth has come on the back of strong Coalition Government support for the tourism industry. The tourism industry is growing three times faster under the Coalition Government than under the previous Labor Government.
Measures taken by the Government in the past three years to support the tourism industry include:
• Stopping Labor’s cuts to Tourism Australia and investing a record $639 million in Tourism Australia to promote Australia internationally;
• The removal of Labor’s carbon tax which slugged the tourism sector over $115 million in its first year alone;
• Increasing the number of markets that have access to online visa lodgement from 72 to over 200, including China, India and Indonesia;
• Announcing a new 10-year multiple entry visitor visa to encourage repeat visitation from China;
• Making visa applications available online in Simplified Chinese – the first time Australia has trialled visa application lodgement in a language other than English; and
• Expanding international aviation capacity, including a tripling of gateway capacity between Australia and China.