Cashed-up tourists rate Australia above all others for value holidays

Australia is officially the number one destination for wealthy international travellers. And the boom is expected to add billions to the nation’s economy within the next four years.

Exclusive: Australia is the number one destination for cashed-up tourists which is expected to add billions to the local economy within the next four years.

Research obtained by News Corp Australia conducted by Tourism Australia shows “high value tourists” nominate Australia as their number one destination to visit above Japan, France, the UK, US, Italy and several other hot travel destinations.

There are 93.4 million High Value Tourists globally with one in four visitors to Australia deemed HVTs.

Australia attracts 8.4 million total international travellers a year.

The average HVT spends $10,000 per person per trip to Australia, compared to the average international traveller who spends around $5000 per person per trip to Australia.

The Twelve Apostles in Victoria is still one of our most popular destinations. Picture: iStock

Once in Australia, Sydney, the Gold Coast and Melbourne are the top three destinations HVTs want to visit and spend their money according to the research. Why these three were nominated was not specified in the report.

Most are married, tertiary educated and bring their families along for multi-destination holidays.

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Uluru is a major drawcard for international tourists.

They prefer to stay in four-star accommodation and rate Australia the top country for being “friendly and welcoming”, being “aquatic and coastal”, having “value for money” and high value “nature” and “native experiences”.

Greenmount Beach on Queensland's Gold Coast is one of the nation’s top spots.

The findings were based on research collected online from more than 24,000 international long-haul travellers.

Minister for Tourism Simon Birmingham said Australia was the perfect drawcard for high value travellers given our fine food and wine, our beautiful beaches and array of nature and adventure experiences on offer.

“As a government we recognise the huge potential of this market and our current Undiscover campaign specifically targets high value travellers from South-East Asian, Britain and Japan,” Senator Birmingham said.

Chief executive of the Council of Small Business Australia Peter Strong said the findings represented an enormous opportunity for Australian businesses.

Melbourne’s CBD has plenty to offer food and wine lovers.

“This is great news and I would encourage all businesses to understand the market, take advantage of this and to network with other businesses in their area,” he said.

Chief executive of the Tourism and Transport Forum Margy Osmond said the research highlighted the need for successful high-spend campaigns like Tourism Australia’s Crocodile Dundee Super Bowl revamp.

“Those ads worked and really showed why it is important to target that audience,” Ms Osmond said.

Business Council of Australia CEO Jennifer Westacott said more tourists who were willing to spend cash was always a good thing for the business landscape.

“Attracting more tourism to Australia is good news for businesses, it means they can invest more, create new jobs and pay higher wages,” she said.