Australian Cities to Benefit From Rise in Chinese Tourist Numbers

Sydney and Melbourne residents could be saying "ni hao" to twice as many Chinese tourists by 2023 than they do today as rising incomes in China make international travel more affordable.

A new global study by InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) in partnership with Oxford Economics found the number of Chinese households earning more than $US35,000 ($45,970) - considered a threshold for being able to afford overseas travel - will nearly triple to 63 million by 2023.

That is expected to lead to a 109 per cent rise in the number of Chinese arrivals into Melbourne and a 98 per cent rise in arrivals to Sydney. Brisbane and the Gold Coast will also benefit from rises of 90 per cent and 86 per cent respectively.

"As Chinese tourism demand matures, we expect preferences to shift toward more expensive, longer-haul experiences," the study said.

Australia was the ninth largest outbound spending market for Chinese visitors in 2013, and most travellers to Australia visit for holidays rather than business and tend to prefer cities over rural areas.

Tourism Australia has been working hard to attract Chinese visitors - in particularly, ones that travel independently rather than in groups because independent travellers spend more. China is already Australia's second biggest source of inbound visitors, behind New Zealand, and its most valuable with annual spending of $5 billion a year, which is expected to reach more than $13 billion by the end of the decade.

However, the IHG/Oxford Economics study showed Australia did not rank in the top 10 long-haul markets for forecast absolute growth in Chinese arrivals between 2013 and 2023. The United States is expected to receive an annual jump of 3.4 million visitors by 2023. France was in second place with 1.2 million and the United Kingdom placed tenth with 299,000 additional arrivals expected. By contrast, Australia is expected to receive 1 million Chinese visitors by 2023, up from 709,000 in 2013. That placed it just out of the top 10 forecast countries for absolute growth.

Tourism Australia managing director John O'Sullivan said with so many other countries competing fiercely for the Chinese market, Australia couldn't afford to take its success to date for granted. "This means understanding what Chinese travellers are looking for in an overseas holiday, and, where needed, adapting and developing our tourism experiences to better fit their needs and expectations," he said.

Karin Sheppard, IHG's chief operating officer Australasia, said nearly half of her group's hotels in Australia were China Ready accredited and that number would rise alongside the expected growth in the number of Chinese guests.

IHG's 11 China Ready hotel properties, which include the InterContinental Sydney, Crowne Plaza Melbourne and Holiday Inn Potts Point Sydney, feature Mandarin-speaking staff, trained Chinese chefs, UnionPay payment facilities and Mandarin television channels in the rooms.

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Tourism Australia Launches New Online Events Calendar

This new online resource will make life much easier for those working in our industry, helping them to select the most appropriate events to participate in or attend here and overseas

Tourism Australia has launched a new online calendar, to assist the industry plan their participation in tourism events in Australia and key international markets.

Tourism Australia’s General Manager Destination Development, Katherine Droga, said the fully searchable calendar provided a valuable one stop shop for the tourism industry, providing an online hub of nearly 80 domestic and international tourism events.

“This new online resource will make life much easier for those working in our industry, helping them to select the most appropriate events to participate in or attend here and overseas,” Ms Droga said.

“Thanks to input from across industry, including our state and territory tourism partners and the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC), we now have a simple, user-friendly tool which will greatly assist in planning for and participating in key international and domestic events such as G’Day USA, ATE14, Corroboree China and ATEC Meeting Place,” she said

Hamilton Island Enterprises General Manager of Sales, Philippa Harrison, welcomed the new online calendar as a much needed tool in an industry where trade events are a crucial part of business activity.

“Hamilton Island has a strong presence at industry events, it’s how we reach key decision makers in our target markets, so we are really pleased this new online events calendar will make the process of searching and selecting the right events for us a lot simpler,” Ms Harrison said.

The Tourism Industry Events Calendar is housed on Tourism Australia’s corporate website and allows industry to search by date, relevant market and host organisation, as well as add their own key events matching the set criteria. It will be regularly updated and acts as the central hub of event information, providing links to the host organisations’ websites for further event and contact details.

The creation of the new online calendar is the latest outcome of a recent review by Tourism Australia looking at ways to improve how Australian tourism product is sold and distributed at home and overseas.

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