MEDIA RELEASE
April 17, 2008	Embargoed 11.30 am (AEST)	32/2008
Highest growth in tourism since 1999: ABS

Tourism's gross value added increased by 7.9% to $32,306m in 2006-07, which was the highest growth rate since 1998-99 and a similar rate of growth to the economy as a whole, according to statistics released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Growth in tourism was driven by both strong domestic tourism consumption (up by 6.8% to $63 billion) as well as by very strong international tourism consumption (up by 9.8% to $22 billion).

As a proportion of Australia's gross domestic product (GDP), tourism remained unchanged from last year at 3.7%, reflecting a similar rate of growth to the economy as a whole.

The release of the Tourism Satellite Account,measures the direct contribution of the tourism industry to the Australian economy by measuring the demand generated by domestic and foreign business and leisure visitors, and the supply of tourism products by domestic producers.

The tourism industry employed 482,800 people in 2006-07, an increase of 1.1% on 2005-06.

More information can be found in Tourism Satellite Account (cat. no. 5249.0).