Melbourne's standing as a growing tourism and business city of significant international importance has been confirmed with the release of Melbourne Airport's 2009/10 passenger figures.
An additional 600,000 international visitors flocked to our city during the past year, an increase of 13%, and growth in overseas travelers to Melbourne has outweighed our Sydney and Brisbane counterparts.
The key growth markets were Indonesia (up 36%), Malaysia (26%), China (14%) and India (10%).
Melbourne Airport CEO Chris Woodruff said the outstanding figures show the strength of Melbourne as a destination and predicted a further influx of overseas visitors from Asia in the coming years.
"Airlines are responding Melbourne's growing importance and they are recognising the advantages of our airport. Air India recently announced its entry into the Australian market with a daily Melbourne-Dehli service from November, and both Air China and China Southern will increase its offers to daily services later this year.
"In addition, AirAsia X has increased to twice daily services from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur, Emirates has increased capacity to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and Jetstar will introduce daily services from Melbourne to Singapore in December," he said.
It also appears that it's not just overseas visitors who have fallen in love with Melbourne, with almost 1 million (4%) more domestic passengers using Melbourne Airport over the past year.
|
|
Financial year
|
|
|
2009/
2010
(‘000)
|
2008/
2009
(‘000)
|
%
Change
|
|
International
|
5,538
|
4,912
|
+ 13%
|
|
Domestic
|
20,630
|
19,743
|
+ 4%
|
|
Transit
|
119
|
119
|
0%
|
|
Total
|
26,287
|
24,774
|
+ 6%
|