Australia has lot to do to catch China's tourism boat
Despite the latest research that suggests Australia's fragmented tourism sector is in danger of missing the boat on China's booming global outbound tourism market, some tourism experts believed that Australia has a lot to do to better benefit the outbound Chinese tourist boom.
New research from Think Global Consulting (TGC) showed that since Australia's Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson announced a new 10-year strategic plan aimed at netting China's tourism potential in June this year, the disjointed structure of Australian tourism organizations has dented country's best attempts to lock down a unified China outbound tourism policy.
Think Global Consulting CEO David Thomas said that Australia's reaction was too slow. "It's a very fragmented industry therefore its very difficult to get the industry speaking as one voice, so there's a lot to be done to upgrade, improve and generate new products for the Chinese tourist," He told Xinhua.
The "China 2020 Strategic Plan" unveiled by Minister Ferguson at the inaugural Australia-China Tourism Summit in Cairns and developed in consultation with industry and government stakeholders, was hailed as a means for Australia to stay competitive in the global race to secure outbound travel from China.
The TGC research has been supported on the Chinese side by a growing confusion at who speaks for the Australian industry. Speaking last month on the Gold Coast Tourism Australia Chairman Geoff Dixon said that he was told by Chinese officials "point- blank" that Australia spoke with "too many voices and, tellingly, most of those voices did not have sufficient resources to make a real impact."
"To speak with one voice about Australia, especially in Asia, and to collectively sell Australia through stronger, singular joint federal and state government-backed campaigns would, without a doubt, be a more effective and efficient way of our doi! ng busin ess," He said.
In the next decade, that market for Australia alone is predicted to be worth somewhere between seven and nine billion dollars, with some 860,000 Chinese visitors forecast to visit Australia in 2020.
Think Global Consulting CEO, David Thomas said that the Chinese tourist spends twice as much as their Japanese counterparts, yet Australia's China-centric tourism platform from mandarin speaking guides to a synchronized online infrastructure remains woefully inadequate.
According to TGC, last year, the number of visitors from China to Australia increased by 28.2 percent. Yet the research indicates there is no clear bilateral path to mutually enhance the potential benefits of such a radical exchange. Thomas said China too, is facing an opportunity to develop systems that can inject intellectual capital into its own burgeoning tourism sector.
"If it's because we don't have enough capital here - which I sense is part of that problem that's a great opportunity for Chinese too because China needs to also build a world class tourist sector. What a great opportunity for Chinese investors to look for opportunities in the Australia tourism market - not only to beef up Australia's capabilities but to take some of those ideas back to China as well,"he said.
Speaking to Xinhua, the Minister for Resources, Energy and Tourism, Martin Ferguson said that the state was set to welcome the Chinese visitor over the next decade.
He said,"the Chinese market presents a wealth of opportunities for Australia and more and more Australians are visiting China to experience the culture and to experience the huge economic opportunities that are occurring in China but for Australia we will, in my opinion double our visitations from China between now and 2020; that's about 470,000 per year at the moment and that will double."
In 2010, China was Australia's fourth largest source of visitor arrivals but also became the largest market in terms of economic value, worth 3.3 billion U.S. do! llars.
One thing is clear with opportunities all-around, the tourism industry can't afford to just be on holiday.
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