As Australia has opened its borders to the rest of the world again and tourists start returning to the country, there is a noted absence in reported interest in international travel to Australia. China, and Chinese tourists, who in 2019 accounted for a quarter of the tourism industry revenue, where 1.4 million Chinese tourists spent $12.2 billion.
The Chinese market’s lack of interest is being blamed on the government’s zero covid policy and the decline of confidence in travelling to Australia with changing laws and regulations.
Tourism was Australia’s fifth most valuable export pre-pandemic, according to the Australian Trade and Investment Commission.
There’s one giant omission in a new top-10 of countries whose travellers plan to visit Australia now our borders are open: China.
Before the pandemic hit, tourists from China accounted for almost a third of all travellers into Australia and they were by far the biggest spenders, generously opening their wallets at cities and tourist hot spots from coast-to-coast.
In 2019, 1.4 million Chinese tourists spent a whopping $12.2 billion – more than one quarter of the entire international tourism spend – according to data provided to 9news.com.au by Australia’s peak tourism body, the Tourism and Transport Forum.
That huge Chinese spend has fallen off a cliff, plunging 99.4 per cent to just $76 million in 2021, TFF figures show.
Global travel website Expedia today revealed its top-10 origin countries for inbound international flights to Australia, based on flight demand in February.
The US came first, with tourists from the UK and Canada rounding out a top three.
New Zealand, which usually sits second just behind China for total tourists visiting Australia, is ranked sixth.
Expedia also developed a top-10 of Australian destination cities tourists will visit, topped by Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Since Australia slammed its borders shut, the tourism sector has been hemorrhaging around $4 billion every month, Margy Osmond, TTF chief executive, said.
“That is a huge amount of cash. And it’s not just tourism, but also ancillary markets,” she said, pointing to sectors like hospitality, laundry and hire cars who are all hurting.
Australia has lost a whole generation of workers in the tourism industry over the past two years, she said.
A TTF survey across the sector last year showed a third of all tourism businesses worried they would be wiped out this year.
Today’s reopening was tremendous news, Ms Osmond said, but tempered expectations by saying “clearly it is going to take us a little while to get back to the pre-pandemic numbers”.
Ms Osmond said the dramatic fall in tourists from China and New Zealand was a major concern, particularly as travellers from both countries still face quarantine measures when they return home.
The COVID-19 directions out of Beijing and Wellington was impeding any real lift off in tourism from both countries.
Travellers from Japan, another crucial Australian inbound market, are also currently unable to travel freely Down Under.
In an attempt to fill the footprint left by China, Ms Osmond said there was “strong interest” from the UK, US and Europe markets, and she implored the government to keep spending large on marketing campaigns globally to let the world know Australia is open again.
It was also critical that the Federal Government lift the ban on cruise ships as soon as possible, she said.
That ban, which has blocked all cruise ships in the multi-billion-dollar industry from docking at Australian ports since March 2020, has recently extended from February to April.
Ms Osmond expected this year to mark the start of “a long and challenging” road to recovery.
“But it will take some time and just because we are now open doesn’t mean the same number of tourists will start flooding our shores.”
Tourism was Australia’s fifth most valuable export pre-pandemic, according to the Australian Trade and Investment Commission
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Australia’s hotels, motels and accommodations providers, the economic backbone of Australia’s Tourism Sector, have survived massive challenges throughout