Its all about cycles (not the ones you ride), Aust inbound tourism has suffered through a very strong dollar for the past year, the recent plunge will see that corrected. Its even back into the territory where predictions are the Japanese will return. So if the dollar stays stable now, lets see what happens over the next 6-12 months with inbound tourism.
I dont accept that people dont come here because of our national airline or CIQ...absolute rubbish...if that were the case no one would visit the USA....yet it is one of the biggest tourist destination on earth...
As for QF, I happen to think they are fairly good...and speaking of cycles...in say 2-5 year from now most QF pax will be riding on state of the art A380 and B787 aircraft, with a full fleet of 737NG making up the numbers with a few 744ER's & A330's...for now I will listen to what the big pax surveys say...(and they still have QF going ok)...and load factors speak for themselves.