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Number of Chinese and Indian Tourists in Australia Expected to Rise
Australia, August 4, 2009 – According to projections form the Tourism Forecasting Committee, visitors from China and India will soar over the next decade. 900,000 tourists per year are expected to arrive from China in 2018, up from 356,000 last year.
Bernard Salt, Tourism Forecasting Committee chairman, said Australia is an attractive option for the China and India markets. ”As they become more like us they will also develop an urge to travel,” he said. ”For the Chinese market we’re an overnight flight and it’s similar with Mumbai, it’s not a 24 hour flight like the UK or Western Europe is to Australia. We are well-positioned as a safe, western, friendly nation to capture that market.”
Tourism Australia’s executive general manager for the eastern hemisphere Richard Beere said Australia is the first western nation to receive approved destination status from China a decade ago. Since then, the market has grown exponentially.
For India, on the other hand, the increase in visitors is pushed by faster visa processing. Australia has been working with immigration in India to facilitate this.
”Tourists from China want to experience being in western culture, while tourists from India will be interested in hot air ballooning and visiting wineries as well as the major cities,” said Beere.
In 2008, the top five origins for visitors to Australia were New Zealand, the UK, Japan, the US and China. The number of visitors from Japan has dropped by 40 percent, from 751,000 in 1998 to 457,000 last year. It is uncertain why the number of tourists from Japan has unexpectedly dropped. Speculations include the declining prosperity and fears of terrorist attacks as contributing factors to the decline. The ageing population is also a possible cause.
Source:
news.com.au
