The Pacific’s tourism sector has been resilient to the falling Australia and New Zealand dollars, according to the July ANZ Bank Pacific Monthly update.
The bank says the Australian dollar depreciated 7.7% in May, while the Kiwi dollar dropped 7.2%.
However, tourism from both countries to the Pacific rose 4.1% over the May 2012 figures, that figure driven by visitors to Fiji (see chart above).
‘We will be watching figures closely in coming months to gauge the resilience of the tourism sector where weaker currencies may be offset by a “closer to home” bias as longer trips to the US and Europe become more expensive,’ the report said.
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