Today the Rudd Government announced $30 million to market Australia to the dynamic Chinese travel market, and a forum on Chinese tourism to be held in Cairns in the near future.
China has 46 million outbound travellers each year. It is a market worth $2.8 billion to Australia's tourism industry and is forecast to increase at an average annual a rate of 10.2 per cent to $5.5 billion in 2017.
The recent announcement of a new service by China Southern from Guangzhou to Brisbane and increased frequency from both Sydney and Melbourne to Guangzhou are good examples of the expansion in air services needed to harness the strong Chinese growth. To build on this, the two sides agreed today that Australia will host a high level forum in Cairns on two way tourism between Australia and China in the near future. They agreed that the high level forum would serve to promote Chinese tourism to Australia and in particular to north Queensland.
In efforts to capitalise on the fast growing Chinese market, the Australian Government's tourism investment in China will include:
- Working with major airline partners including China Eastern, Air China, Qantas and China Southern Airlines to build frequency, capacity and dispersal of direct air services throughout Australia. The recent strategic partnership announced by Tourism Australia and China Southern is an example of the kind of relationship which will deliver both marketing and capacity benefits for Australia.
- The launch of Tourism Australia There's Nothing Like Australia campaign in China in early August. This will include print and broadcast advertising in major national and regional media in addition to a digital campaign inviting potential Chinese travellers to vote online for the best Aussie experiences suggested by 3,500 Australian entries.
- Strengthening partnerships with the travel agents who sell Australian holidays in China through Tourism Australia's Aussie Specialist travel agent program, which currently has nearly 3000 members in China.
- Streamlining and enhancing the China Approved Destination Status (ADS) Scheme Code of Business Standards and Ethics to monitor the ADS-approved operators and the quality of services provided to Chinese tourists visiting Australia under the scheme.
The $30 million investment also includes the $4.1 million announced by the Australian Government in April for consolidating bilateral relations for international tourism between China and Australia under the Approved Destination Status (ADS) scheme plus Tourism Australia's investment in China to market Australia as a tourist destination.
Australia has enjoyed a great head start as the first Western destination to gain approval from the Chinese Government to host group leisure tourists from three provinces of Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou in China since 1999.
During that time the number of Chinese visitors has grown from 93,000 visitors in 1999 to more than 366,000 in 2009 to become the fourth largest market for tourism to Australia.
China is expected to emerge as Australia's number one source market for international visitors in the next few years.
To help make this promise a reality the Government's focus will be on strengthening our investment beyond the three core regions of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou into Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and generating the demand which will drive air capacity and further investment.