Bilateral tourism imbalance - is there a cause for concern: the case of Australia and Korea

In recent years, tourism flows between nations have become so large that they can exert a negative impact on national balance of payments. This paper examines the issue of bilateral tourism flows by examining the development of bilateral tourism between Australia and Korea. Following the abolition of controls over Korean citizens travelling overseas in 1989, Korea has emerged as a major tourism generating region. Australian tourism authorities were quick to realise the potential and initiated a very successful tourism promotion campaign aimed at capturing a significant part of Korea's outbound tourism. In 1996 Australia recorded 250,400 Korean arrivals with annual growth rates exceeding 25%. Australian inbound tourism to Korea, however, was much smaller at 30,694 arrivals in 1996 creating a significant bilateral tourism imbalance. This paper examines the growth of the bilateral tourism trade between the two countries and looks at future prospects in terms of threats and opportunities. Impacts of the Asian financial crisis are also considered. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.