Chinese tourists key to strong performance of Australian visitor economy

CANBERRA - Australia's visitor economy is on track to generate A$127 billion ($97 billion) by 2020 backed by a surging Chinese visitor market, the Tourism Research Australia (TRA) said Thursday.

The latest forecasts released by TRA has seen upward revisions in domestic and international visitors and expenditure over the 10-year forecast period.

TRA expects the international visitor growth rate to be at 6.7 percent in 2016-17 and 5.9 percent in 2017-18. It is within the target range of A$115 billion to A$140 billion ($88 billion to $107 billion) in overnight visitor expenditure set by the government's Tourism 2020 strategy.

By 2024-25, about 12.3 million international visitors are expected to travel to Australia each year.

According to TRA forecast, China is expected to overtake New Zealand as Australia's largest visitor source market by 2017-18, two years earlier than previously forecast.

Of Australia's total international visitors, Chinese visitors are estimated to increase from 13 percent in 2014-15 to 26 percent by 2024-25.

"Today's report should be a catalyst to spur the Federal Government into action to move the visitor economy to the heart of its economic plan for the nation. Tourism is a serious economic driver delivering jobs for Australians and wealth for the country," Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF) CEO Margy Osmond said.

By 2024-25, one in every four international visitors travelling to Australia will likely be from China. But with more than 200 million Chinese travellers expected to be heading overseas by 2020, Australia will still be capturing less than 1 percent of this lucrative market.

"We shouldn't be willing to settle for this result. We can do much better than this if the Federal Government is willing to back our successful industry with an economic strategy that allows the sector to reach its full potential," she said.