Australian Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment: Securing new flights to grow tourism

• The Hon Steven Ciobo MP, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment
• The Hon Mark Coulton MP, Assistant Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment

A global aviation conference being held in Brisbane presents an opportunity for Australia to secure new international flights that will further grow our record breaking tourism industry.

Routes Asia 2018 brings together the world's major airlines and is the only aviation route development event dedicated to the Asia Pacific region. More than 1000 airline, airport and tourism delegates from 100 countries are attending the three-day event to discuss new and existing air services.

As an island nation, aviation access is crucial to our success. Australia is enjoying record tourism growth with a record 8.81 million international tourists spending a record $41.3 billion during the past year. To ensure our tourism industry continues to set new records and create more Australian jobs, we need to secure new flights and routes that will deliver more tourists.

Over the past 10 years, international air capacity to Australia has kept pace with the increase in international visitors to our shores, which clearly highlights the connection between aviation development and the growth of Australia's tourism industry.

Connectivity to Asia is key to Australia's tourism success, as the region represents 49 per cent of all international visitors to Australia and 56 per cent of overnight visitor spend.

Australia is well placed to take advantage of Asia's growing middle class that is right on our doorstep and events like Routes Asia provide a unique opportunity to capitalise on this potential.

The Turnbull Coalition Government is focused on attracting new flights into Australia to grow our vibrant tourism industry and we've made liberalising and modernising our air services agreements a priority.

Last year the number of inbound seats increased to 26 million, a five per cent increase, and there are currently a record number of flights into Australia from 65 airlines. Almost 100,000 planes flew into Australia in 2017.

However we want more flights to Australia and are working to attract more through events like this. More flights means more tourists coming to Australia which will grow our tourism industry and create new Australian jobs.