On Wednesday the Australian Bureau of Statistics released its inbound and outbound tourism numbers for the month of August.
According to the release, Australia welcomed 783,300 short term visitors to its shores during the month of August. This was an increase of 0.7% on the previous month and 4.8% from a year earlier.
A 2.7% increase in tourism from New Zealand, a 2.6% lift in visitor numbers from China, and a 7.5% jump in Japanese visitor numbers underpinned the solid year on year growth.
In addition to this, the data shows that 934,300 residents returned to Australia from short term trips overseas. This was a 0.3% increase on July's numbers and a 6% lift from August 2017.
Bali, New Zealand, and the United States were where the majority of Australians were returning home from during the month.
How can you profit from this?
With the Australian dollar weakening in recent months, I expect this to be supportive of further growth in inbound tourism for the foreseeable future. This should put tourism-focused companies in a good position to grow over the medium term at least.
While my favourite in the industry remains travel agent Webjet Limited (ASX: WEB), companies such as Crown Resorts Ltd (ASX: CWN), Helloworld Travel Ltd (ASX: HLO), Star Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX: SGR), and Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) are also well positioned to benefit.
My preference for Webjet is down to the fact that it stands to benefit from both the inbound and outbound tourism boom due to its wide geographical footprint. Furthermore, I feel its shares are trading at an attractive level given its strong long-term growth prospects.
I'm not the only one that thinks this. According to a note out of Ord Minnett today, it has upgraded Webjet's shares to a buy rating with a $16.80 price target.
