Data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reveals that the tourism industry was doing fairly well. This is despite the decreasing number of international arrivals in the country. The data given is for the month of January.

However, the number of short-term visitors grew by 4.8 per cent for the full year ending January.

Meanwhile, as for the international tourists, the figure dropped by 0.5 per cent, for the month of January. Besides this, the other trend that was revealed suggests that more Australian inbound tourists went overseas rather than visiting places within.

ABS data tells that the number of inbound tourists going overseas zipped past outbound tourists coming to Australia by 713,500, highest in the last 34 years.

China, Hong King, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore, the key markets, were the ones which saw the major decline.

Experts believe that it is because of the high-valued Australian dollar which is making visits to and inside Australia unattractive.

But given these too, the tourism industry has performed better compared to last year with the economy bouncing back, believe industry people.