Number of overseas tourists to Australia increases, but not to the capital

Overseas tourists to Australia rose from 5.6 million in 2009 to 5.9 million in 2010. Over half of the tourists came from New Zealand, the United Kingdom, America, China and Japan.

However, only one percent of tourists visited the capital, Canberra. With renovations to the Canberra Airport and the focus on attracting overseas visitors, it is expected that the number of visitors will increase. In 2009, there were 58,000 international visitors to Canberra, which increased to 60,590 in 2010.

Nevertheless, the domestic tourism market is healthy in the nation's capital. The National Visitors Survey indicated that in the last quarter of 2010, overnight domestic visitors increased by 12 per cent compared to the last quarter in 2009. For the whole of 2010, there were 2.03 million domestic overnight tourists, up by almost 14 percent on 2009 figures. It was the highest domestic tourism figures of any state or territory in Australia in 2010 - attributed to the art gallery exhibition, Masterpieces from Paris, and also to the Floriade Flower Festival.

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