Australia woos Chinese toursits
(eastday.com)
Updated: 2005-04-01 09:29

Tourism Australia launched its new campaign - "Australia. A Different Light" - in Shanghai yesterday, aiming to build on Chinese people's strong interest in Australia as a holiday destination.

"Undoubtedly, China is one of the most important markets in Asia, whether it is with regard to visitor arrivals or their average spending," Greig McAllan, general manager of Tourism Australia Asia, told Shanghai Daily. "And Shanghai, along with Beijing and Guangdong Province, is one of the most important markets here."

A total of 251,300 tourists from China visited Australia last year, an increase of more than 43 percent compared with 2003, according to the Australian tourism board.
In the year ended September 2004, visitors from China stayed altogether 9.5 million nights in Australia, and spent 907 million Australian dollars (US$701 million) during the stay, the tourism board added.

"China has replaced Singapore, a 25-year leader, as Asia's No. 1 source of arrivals, excluding Japan," McAllan said. "The Chinese market, which opened in 1999, has spent a much shorter period to reach the current stage."

Tourism Australia expects visitor arrivals from China to increase by 17.1 percent per annum over the next 10 years and reach 1.1 million by 2013.

To meet these goals, it has hiked its China marketing expenditure for 2004-2005 to A$5.7 million, up 68 percent year-on-year.