Fed: Arrivals down 8.4 per cent in July

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Fed: Arrivals down 8.4 per cent in July

BRISBANE, Aug 22 AAP - The global economic downturn and September 11 continued to impacton the inbound Australian tourism industry with the number of overseas arrivals droppingby 8.4 per cent in July, figures out today show.

The Australian Bureau of Statistic preliminary arrivals survey found 409,400 internationalvisitors came to our shores last month, 37,500 less than in July 2001.

Australia's major markets continued to drop with New Zealand plunging 25.5 per cent,Britain 17.7 per cent and the United States 8.4 per cent compared to 12 months ago.

Encouragingly Japan only declined 1.4 per cent.

In the seven months this year total arrivals were down almost 140,000 or 4.9 per cent.

AAP ch/sc/cjh

KEYWORD: ARRIVALS