But instead she took her colleagues from the city of Hangzhou to New Zealand after learning Australia was cut from a list of destinations approved by Beijing for group overseas travel, effectively halting a two-decade programme that had helped China dominate Australia's A$45 billion international tourism market until early 2020.
In February, the first full month since China's border reopened, Australia recorded 40,430 short-term visitors from China, government data showed. That was one-fifth the number who visited in the same month in the record year of 2019 and well behind visits from New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. Beijing did not give a reason for ending Australia's ADS status, but travel industry participants say geopolitics has played a role, with relations at a low ebb amid trade disputes and increasingly strident security rhetoric between the West and China.
was Australia's biggest source of foreign students until 2019, but students of other nationalities have filled its foreign student ranks since Australia reopened its border in 2021.Australia's tourism industry is also constrained by lack of foreign language-speaking guides and essential personnel including coach drivers, industry participants said, as the COVID-19 downturn followed by the lowest unemployment level in decades drew workers to other fields.
Some independent Chinese tourists in Australia told Reuters they were visiting because they had relatives in the country who arranged accommodation and tours, meaning they could bypass the language barrier and other issues. Johnny Nee, Director at Easy Going Travel Services Pty Ltd in Perth, which connects Chinese visitors with hotels and cruises, said his partner organisations had filled the shortfall of Chinese tourists by catering to the domestic market.
🤣