TRAVELtech: Kicking off with stats from the Airport Economist

Fist in my series of live blogging from the TRAVELtech Year of Living Dangerously conference.
Opening session led by Tim Harcout from Austrade. Also known as the Airport Economist basd on this book of the same name. He is opening up the conference by giving us a view of the Australian economy and whether or not local travel companies should be fearing for the worst given the view from the US and Europe over economic concerns.

As Harcout described it, the world economy has "...gone from the sub-prime to the ridiculous". But Tim tried to reassure all that the Australia economy is almost unstoppable with the longest expansion in history with very low unemployment and very strong terms of trade.

The part I found most interesting from his entertaining presnetation was the statics that shows that departures out of Australia numbered more than arrivals in 2007 and so far in 2008 for the first time since trackings started. In simple terms more Australians are leaving the country to holiday/travel overseas that visitors entering the country. Does not mean a complete disaster for inbound players are there is still growth for inbound but for the first time the outbound providers have the upper hand in Australia.