Australia is slowly becoming unattractive to Chinese tourists as the side effects of the trade friction between the US and China, coupled with the latter's weak economy, has forced them to just stay where they are.
After years of impressive advancement, China's tourism numbers have declined in the land Down Under. It is a crucial period for a market that has benefitted from a huge income in the last ten years.
Many tourism stakeholders are now wondering: What lies ahead for Australia's tourism business? At the moment, nobody has a clear answer.
Latest figures from Australia's statistics bureau indicates a total inbound increase from China of below one percent for fiscal year capping June 30, 2019, compared to the same month last year. Based on Tourism Research Australia, Chinese leisure visitors to the country was down 1.4 percent in the same month after a strong 14 percent growth from the prior year.
Chinese visitors rose just a measly 1 percent for July, matching its lowest level in nine years, while growth in the number of exchange students to Australia has likewise dropped considerably.
Even Australia's limping currency has not been able to assuage the situation. It is quite apparent the business is not what it used to be following a decade of solid rise, 17 percent a year since, the TRA bared.
Economists believe that the topsy-turvy world of geopolitics and the US-China trade drama has played a major role in the downturn. It "creates a great deal of uncertainty for both visitors, particularly the students," Hayden Dimes, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group economist, said.
Dimes analyzed that if the figures continue to fall, it could cost the Australian economy, which is the most China-dependent in the developing world -- around $800 million Australian dollars (AUD) in the next two years.
Austrade, the country's marketing and investment promotion agency, has been doing its best to scale back Australia's tourism outlook arrivals.
According to Anthea Hammon, Scenic World Blue Mountains managing director, "China has been and will always be a risky market." Scenic is Australia's biggest privately-run tourist destination with over one million visitors per year, most of them coming from mainland China.
Meanwhile, Dimes said services are becoming very significant to the Australian economy. In the last five years, this segment has surged at an average of around 14 percent per year. China is the single biggest source of Australia's international students and visitors, representing around 27 percent and 16 percent, respectively.
