Tourism & Transport Forum, CEO Margy Osmond at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Australia Pacific 2025

Transcript

Margy Osmond:Look, in terms of where we're sitting now from an international demand perspective, we're probably at about 91% across the board of where we were before COVID Some places better than others. Other advantages for places like Sydney Airport, they've got more Chinese airlines coming in now than they did before COVID So in theory, the settings are right to see that increase in visitors. I think cost of living is having a bit of impact in other parts of the world in terms of their willingness to travel. Chinese market's not back where we would like to have seen it, but much of that's to do with, I think, Chinese people having discovered their own country in the last few years and spending a lot of time and energy and being incentivized to do it, to stay in China. We're certainly seeing an increase In visitors from the U.S., we're not seeing an increase. In fact, we're seeing a drop in Australians wanting to go to the U.S. For the first time in probably five or six years, we've seen America drop out of the top five of destinations for Australians when we ask their holiday intention questions every year. Japan still incredibly popular, and I think that's a product of the exchange rate. And what we're seeing here in Australia is a bit more growth out of India and growth out of South Korea. Well, look, I suppose the biggest pain point and the subject du jour of any kind of impact on that inbound travel from overseas is our border. There's no doubt that once upon a time Australia was top of the pops when it came to technology and management of borders and creating the best experience possible. Unfortunately, we've slipped behind the rest of the world, and that's an issue of investment. So governments really need to think more strategically about the value of that border. We're all talking about productivity at the moment, and there's absolutely no doubt that a better border experience makes for a better traveller experience. That affects our brand Australia because your first and last impression of a country is crossing the border. But in addition to that, simply having a more efficient space, I think, is going to make lots of Australians happy too. Wouldn't you like to not have to worry about finding a pen an hour out from Sydney or wherever you might be landing— Melbourne, Brisbane? Yes. to fill in the arrivals card. That absolutely has to go, and we're certainly in that conversation with the government at the moment. The ABF have been doing great work to prepare for that improved border, but it's really about funding at every turn, and it's not just about aviation. Within the cruise industry, we're now losing very important visits from major ships to particularly regional communities because we can't give those ships the certainty that we can service them with customs officers and ABF in that environment. So, opportunity to make a big difference, and we're certainly hoping out of this productivity discussion now that we see more money going into Australia's border. Thank you.

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