Even more Chinese visitors for Australia
THE number of people visiting Australia from China has pushed it into our top three list.
New figures on overseas arrivals released today show the Asian tourist market still growing, with China now clearly third, behind only the UK and Japan where numbers are down because of the economy and the Japanese tsunami.
Australia's peak tourism export body says more than 39,000 visitors came to Australia from China in May.
In February China surpassed Japan as the world's second-largest economy, capping the nation's 30 year rise from communist isolation to emerging superpower.
The new managing director of the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC), Felicia Mariani, says our Chinese visitors are spending more than anyone else.
"These figures confirm what we have now recognised as tourism's Chinese Dragon," Ms Mariani said.
"Other Asian countries like Singapore, Malaysia and India are also showing signs of significant growth and these markets are proving our saviour amidst a decline from more traditional markets such as Japan and the UK."
Ms Mariani said the UK market in particular remained sluggish following the economic downturn with a 10 per cent decline over the past 12 months.
"It is no surprise to see the impact of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami taking its toll, with their numbers down by more than 25 per cent over the previous 12 months, but fortunately the New Zealand market remains steady."
The figures, released by the Bureau of Statistics, show visitors from Malaysia are up by 12 per cent annually, while more and more Australians are passing up home-grown holidays for trips overseas with numbers up from 635,400 in April to 645,900 in May.
"The challenge for our industry is to embrace and grow these emerging markets and to find new ways to attract our domestic market back on-shore," Ms Mariani said.
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