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Australia: Free Wi-Fi increasingly important for overseas visitors

2014/09/17

The Tourism Research Australia data revealed a 13 % increase in internet use in 2013-14, with most overseas visitors (43 %) using their smartphone to use the service.

An extra 34 % used their iPad.

Visitors most often used the internet to get maps (83 %), data on destinations and attractions (44 %), restaurant guides (37 %), event guides (21 %) and for language translations (16 %).

The data as well shows that the number of international tourists coming to WA in 2013-14 jumped 50,000 (or 6.7 %) on the previous year, taking the total for the year to just short of 800,000.

The figure includes a 7.3 % increase in people coming to WA for a holiday and a 14.5 % increase on those coming to visit friends or relatives.

Tourism Council chief executive Evan Hall said the stand-out market for WA was presently Singapore, with 16,200 additional visitors.

"The introduction of new flights by low-cost carrier Scoot and lower hotel rates in Perth is driving the increase in visitors from Singapore," Mr Hall said. "As hotel rates come down, WA is becoming additional competitive for leisure tourists so it is critical for the National Government to invest in marketing WA and its extraordinary experiences.

"There has as well been a strong return in our traditional markets from the United Kingdom and Europe, led by a 22.8 % increase in German visitors.

"It seems leisure tourists from these markets are returning to holiday once again in WA."

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