Chinese tourism investment boom in Australia reaches ‘cruising altitude’ | ehotelier.com
The latest tourism figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics paint a remarkably positive picture of Chinese tourism to Australia. Not only did the Chinese inbound figures pass the ‘magic million’ mark in the past year – an increase of over 19 per cent on the year to April 2016 – but Chinese tourists now account for 23 per cent of total expenditure (over $7 billion) by overseas visitors. In 2009, Chinese tourism to Australia numbered less than 350,000, and tourists could only fly from five Chinese cities. Today, they can fly direct from ten cities, and the prospects for further expansion in the future were highlighted by the announcement last month by China’s biggest private airline operator, HNA Aviation Group, to take a 13 per cent (AUD$159 million) stake in Virgin Australia.
