AUSTRALIA TO SUFFER BIG DROP IN OVERSEAS TOURISTS

MELBOURNE, Dec 30 (Bernama) -- Australia is about to suffer its biggest drop
in the number of overseas visitors in 20 years, a new report says.

Tourism Australia's independent forecasting committee says the industry will
take in A$1.8 billion less in the two years to 2010 than it predicted just four
months ago.

Inbound travel will fall by 4.1 percent next year because of the global
financial crisis.

The drop would be the worst since the Australian pilots' strike sapped
visitor numbers by 7.5 per cent in 1989.

The report also said outbound travel would fall by 2.6 percent -- its first
downturn since the international outbreak of SARS hit the industry six years
ago.

The forecast also stymied expectations that falling petrol prices and the
lower value of the Australian dollar would fuel a boom in domestic travel.

It said the number of domestic trips would drop by 0.9 percent but committee
chairman, Bernard Salt, says the blow will be softened by a dramatic rise in
spending.

"A lot of Australians, instead of travelling overseas with a weak dollar,
will spend their vacation money locally and that will offset the expected
decrease in overseas visitors," he said.

Salt also said that it would lift the industry's takings by 0.3 per cent to
A$90.6 billion next year.
--BERNAMA