Chinese visitors driving Australian tourism boom: report

The number of Chinese visitors to Australia has grown 13 percent in a single year, a new report from the Australian government’s leading tourism economics and research body showed.

The latest International Visitor Survey, released by Tourism Research Australia on Friday evening, revealed that a recordhigh 1.3 million visitors from China visited Australia from July 2017 to June 2018.

The 1.3 million visitors spent A$11.3 billion ($8.1 billion) in the country, up an impressive 15 percent from the previous year.

According to the International Visitor Survey, Chinese visitors accounted for 81 percent of the total growth in tourism spending for the year.

The total number of international visitors was 8.4 million, up 5 percent, and the total spending was A$42.5 billion, up 6 percent year on year.

Chinese visitors spent an average of A$8,692 while in Australia, doubling the A$4,394 spent by other foreign visitors on average.

New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state and home of Sydney, was the most popular destination with 4.3 million international visitors spending A$10.5 billion in the state.

The island state of Tasmania experienced the biggest growth in both visitors and visitor spending, both figures rising 21 percent from the previous year.

Concerning for the Northern Territory, which has actively tried to attract more Chinese visitors, was that the number of visitors fell 7 percent and visitor spending dropped 15 percent.

The Northern Territory government in April launched direct flights from the territory to China for the first time in the form of a Donghai Airlines flight from Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, to Darwin.

But the tourism gains derived from the new flight corridor have been offset by Malaysian Airlines, Air Asia Indonesia and Philippine Airlines abandoning the Northern Territory.

“While we understand why the numbers are down, we think the future is much brighter than what the current numbers reveal,” Northern Territory Airports chief executive Ian Kew told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, referring to opportunities brought by growing Chinese tourists.