Flights to Sydney from New Zealand start 16 October 2020 and TRA's National Visitor Survey Results

Source: Tourism Research Australia (TRA) & Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI)

The NSW Taxi Council is a member of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI).

Recently, the ACCI shared the information about the New Zealand Travel Bubble and Tourism Research Australia's national survey results with the NSW Taxi Council.

The arrival of tourists and visitors from New Zealand at Sydney Airport from October 16 2020 is a positive news for the NSW Taxi Industry as it means more passengers to pick up for Taxis from the Sydney Airport - a very important source of fares for Taxis in NSW.

Please find the the media release from ACCI for the NZ travel bubble here.

Furthermore, Tourism Research Australia released the National Visitor Survey results for the year and quarter ending June 2020.

Please find a summary of the key results below.

Annual Snapshot (Year ending June 2020):

• Overnight spend - $63 billion (down 19%)

• Overnight trips – 92 million (down 19%)

• Nights on trip – 341.5 million (down 15%)

January to June 2020 highlights:

These figures highlight the impact on tourism of both bushfires and COVID-19.

• Domestic tourism saw a total loss of $21.7 billion in January to June 2020 when compared to the same period in 2019, this comprised:

• Domestic overnight losses of $17.7 billion

• Domestic day losses of $4 billion

June Quarter 2020:

Quarterly Snapshot (June quarter 2020):

• Overnight spend – $3.9 billion (down 80%)

• Overnight trips – 10 million (down 67%)

• Nights on trip – 38.2 million (down 62%)

Reasons for travel:

Australians’ reasons for travel changed due to the impact of COVID-19:

• Holiday trips were most affected, as overnight trips fell 78% to 2.6 million and spend fell 87% to $1.1 billion.

• Trips to visit friends and relatives (VFR) were down 63% to 3.8 million. Spend was down 81% to $729 million.

• Business trips fell 60% to 2.9 million. Spend fell 73% to $1.7 billion.

Overnight trip spend patterns/ habits:

Spending patterns changed significantly due to COVID-19, and so the share of total overnight spend changed:

• Fuel up from 11% to 19%

• Groceries for self-catering up from 5% to 12%

• Domestic airfares down from 16% to 6%

• Takeaway and restaurant meals down from 17% to 14%

Some spend categories had close to 100% falls in June quarter 2020:

• Convention and conference fees - down 99%

• Organised tours - down 98%

• Gambling - down 98%

• Entertainment - down 97%

• Taxis - down 95%

Accommodation

• Most accommodation types faced large declines, but these falls were much larger for the commercial accommodation sector in the June quarter 2020:

• Hotel, motel and resort-style accommodation fell 83% (20.9 million nights) to 4.4 million

• Rented apartments and units fell 71% (6.1 million nights) to 2.5 million

• Caravan parks and commercial camping grounds fell 70% (5.4 million nights) to 2.3 million

• Property of a friend or relative fell 57%

Interstate and intrastate travel

State border closures due to COVID-19 saw significant falls for the June quarter 2020:

• Interstate trips fell 88% to 1.1. million

• Intrastate trips fell 57% to 8.9 million

The interstate market accounted for just 11% of all overnight trips in the June quarter 2020, compared to 31% in June quarter 2019.

For further information visit ACCI's website here and TRA's Website here.