As the relative cost of overseas travel has increased, more Australians are holidaying domestically and more people are visiting our shores. Encouragingly, we are now seeing some signs that this change in travel patterns is prompting a pick-up in investment in the tourism industry.
In particular, there has been a noticeable increase in the stock of work to be done in the construction of hotel and related accommodation (Graph 10). The RBA’s liaison with tourism-related businesses suggests that further increases in investment in this area are likely in coming years. Conditions have also improved in a number of other sectors that are sensitive to the exchange rate.