China, India to give Australia's tourism a lift

Experts on Monday urged Australian tourism operators to be optimistic, predicting that emerging India and China market will help to lift the local flattened industry.

The Tourism and Events Excellence conference was held in Melbourne of Australia on Monday.

According to Chris Richardson from Deloitte Access Economics, the industry should give itself a face lift in preparation.

"It's the same thing driving the short-term pain as will drive the long-term gain," he told the conference, quoted by Australia Associated Press on Monday. "The Australian dollar is through the roof because Asia's potential is great."

"At the moment its hunger is industrial commodities but in time, as its income rises, its hunger will be for travel and in a sense the Australian dollar is a barometer of that," he added.

"Its strength today is of itself an indicator of the tourism potential of the future."

Meanwhile, Federal Minister Assisting on Tourism Senator Nick Sherry, said emerging markets such as China and India, provided one of Australia's biggest opportunities to refresh the country's tourism products and services.

He said tourism operators should build on Australia's riches of natural experiences, indigenous attractions and well-developed transport links.

"However, in the highly competitive world of tourism, events and conferences, there is no room for complacency," he said.

China is emerging as Australia's leading tourism expenditure market, which worth around 3.3 billion U.S. dollars annually. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) also showed more than 39,000 Chinese tourists came to Australia in May, ranking third behind the United Kingdom and Japan.

Earlier, the report of Hospitality 2015 said China and India would remain as the key markets in Australian tourism sector and would have year-on-year growth greater than the United Kingdom, France or Japan by 2015.