SELECTED SERVICE INDUSTRIES

The remainder of the chapter presents statistics obtained from regular surveys of retail trade and wholesale trade, and the 2003-04 survey of travel agency services conducted by the ABS.


Retail trade

The Retail trade industry comprises businesses primarily engaged in the sale of new or used goods to final consumers for personal or household consumption, or in selected repair activities such as repair of household equipment or motor vehicles.

The estimate of retail turnover includes the value of turnover from businesses such as supermarkets, clothing and department stores, as well as hospitality and selected service businesses such as cafes and restaurants, hotels and licensed clubs. It excludes motor vehicle retailing and services. In order to measure the actual expenditure of consumers, retail turnover is recorded from 1 July 2000 inclusive of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Table 22.3 presents retail turnover for the period 2002-03 to 2006-07. Total retail turnover (in volume terms) increased by 19% between 2002-03 and 2006-07, representing an average annual growth rate of 4.4%.

The group representing the largest component of retail turnover (in current prices) in 2006-07 was Food retailing with 41% of total turnover. The next largest groups were Hospitality and services with 16% and Household good retailing with 15% of total turnover.

Between 2005-06 and 2006-07 the turnover (in volume terms) of Household good retailing increased by 10%; Clothing and soft good retailing by 7%; Other retailing by 4%; Department stores, Recreational goods retailing and Food retailing, by 3% each; and Hospitality and services by 1%.

22.3 RETAIL TURNOVER(a)(b)
	Industry(c)
	Food retailing	Department stores	Clothing and soft good retailing	Household good retailing	Recreational good retailing	Other retailing	Hospitality and services	Total
	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m
2002-03	75 283	14 528	11 498	23 344	7 199	19 023	30 180	180 636
2003-04	78 360	15 577	12 265	27 180	7 914	20 990	32 284	194 438
2004-05	80 371	16 283	13 242	29 929	8 300	21 279	31 832	201 236
2005-06	82 334	16 305	14 002	31 689	8 172	20 497	33 091	206 089
2006-07	84 495	16 821	14 935	34 755	8 404	21 287	33 582	214 279
(a) Based on quarterly data.
(b) Volume measures. Reference year is 2004-05. Measures for years other than 2004-05 and 2005-06 are not additive.
(c) Classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 1993 edition.
Source: Retail Trade, Australia (8501.0).

Graph 22.4 shows annual growth rates for total retail turnover (in volume terms) from 1996-97 to 2006-07. During this period the four years with the strongest annual growth were 2003-04 (8%), 1999-2000 and 2001-02 (6%) and 2002-03 (5%). The two years of weakest growth occurred in 1996-97 and 2000-01 (1% each). Growth in 2000-01 was affected by the unusual increase in the volume of goods sold in the June quarter 2000, prior to the introduction of GST on 1 July 2000.

In 2005-06 Retail trade industry GVA (in current prices) was $54,810 million (m) or 5.7% of GDP.


Wholesale trade

The Wholesale trade industry covers those businesses involved in the sale of new or used goods to businesses or to institutional (including government) users. Graph 22.5 shows annual volume measures of total wholesale trade sales.

Travel agency services

The ABS conducted a survey of business organisations mainly engaged in the provision of travel agency services in 2003-04.

At 30 June 2004 there were 2,640 businesses whose main activity was the provision of travel agency services (table 22.6). They consist of 2,396 (91%) businesses mainly engaged in the retailing of travel products, 135 wholesale/ticket consolidator businesses and 109 inbound tour operators.

In 2003-04 travel agencies generated a total income of $2,109m. The major contributor to total income was sale of travel products ($1,935m or 92%), of which $1,823m was earned from ticket sales.

Total expenses incurred by businesses providing travel agency services in 2003-04 were $1,776m. The largest expenditure item was labour costs of $945m which contributed 53% to total expenses. Other major expenses were advertising and brochure expenses of $132m, and rent, leasing and hiring expenses of $130m.

Businesses providing travel agency services recorded a before tax operating profit of $333m for the 2003-04 financial year. This was an overall operating profit margin of 17%. This profit margin varied by type of travel agency. Retail travel agencies had an operating profit margin of 14%, whereas wholesalers/ticket consolidators recorded an operating profit margin of 29% and inbound tour operators had an operating profit margin of 13%.

Travel agency services contributed $1.2 billion to total industry value added in 2003-04.

At 30 June 2004, total employment in travel agencies was 22,609 and was predominantly female (16,236). Full-time employment (17,969 persons) represented 80% of total employment. Working proprietors and partners comprised 4% (854 persons) of all persons employed, and they mainly worked in retail travel agency businesses.

22.6 TRAVEL AGENCY SERVICES, Summary of operations - 2003-04
			Retailers	Wholesalers/ticket consolidators	Inbound tour operators	Total
Businesses at 30 June		no.	2 396	135	109	2 640
Employment at 30June		no.	17 534	3 766	1 309	22 609
Income
	Ticket sales	$m	1 334	379	109	1 823
	Other travel	$m	93	17	3	112
	Other	$m	107	55	12	174
	Total	$m	1 535	451	123	2 109
Expenses
	Labour costs	$m	720	166	59	945
	Rent, leasing and hiring	$m	111	11	8	130
	Other	$m	500	159	42	701
	Total	$m	1 330	337	109	1 776
Operating profit before tax		$m	205	114	15	333
Operating profit margin		%	14	29	13	17
Industry value added		$m	912	238	70	1 220
Source: Travel Agency Services, Australia (8653.0).

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