Australia’s tourism industry has recorded its highest annual tourism earnings this year since the 2000 Sydney Olympics and Chinese visitors contributed AUD$19 million to the RMB91 million in daily tourism revenue from foreign visitors. Chinese visitors spending is equivalent to a fifth of Australia’s AUD$7 billion of tourism earnings from foreign visitor spending.
Sydney Harbour
Australia’s Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb said the government’s latest survey on international visitors shows that visitors’ spending this year grew by 10%, or AUD$3.2 billion, to total AUD$33.4 billion.
He said the findings confirm that tourism has become a pillar industry in the Australian economy. “If we continue to leverage our ‘Clean, Green and Safe’ branding, we can secure ourselves the top position among Asian long-haul destinations and make the tourism industry the highest growth industry for the decade,” he said.
Chinese visitors are the fastest growing group of visitors to Australia with volume up 22% this year compared to last year to reach a total of 864,000 arrivals.
Dr. Deborah Edwards from the tourism research institute at the University of Technology Sydney said the millions of Chinese traveling abroad are eager to meet the locals at pubs and experience the Aussie lifestyle for themselves. “Chinese are looking to get exactly the same things out of their trips as us,” she said.(Translation by David)
