Former Tourism Australia boss John O’Sullivan welcomes the return of Chinese travellers but says the quicker, the better on getting rid of COVID-19 tests.
With Chinese tourists able to travel again from January 8, spending by international visitors is predicted to surpass its pre-pandemic levels towards the end of this year or by early next year.
“The quicker we can make it easy and hassle-free for Chinese tourists to get to Australia in terms of protocols, the better,” Mr O’Sullivan said on Wednesday.“This is a very sought-after market by all our competitors, and it’s a market that moves quickly and to scale. The past 12 months has only confirmed to us that the more barriers you put up for travellers, such as visas, application times, cost or requiring a PCR test, the more likely they are to look for an easier, alternative destination.
“We had not budgeted for Chinese travellers for FY 2023, so this is really welcome news, and we’re eagerly anticipating their return,” said Mr O’Sullivan, whose Experience Co runs skydiving, snorkelling and a host of other tourism activities once heavily reliant on foreign tourists. From January to October last year, the first year of relatively easy travel in and out of Australia since March 2020, international visitors arriving recovered to more than 34 per cent, while Australians travelling overseas recovered to 43 per cent, according to Tourism Research Australia data.
Australians travelled in force in 2022, creating long queues at Sydney Airport over Easter last year and during other peak travel periods.by Australians is up $13 billion or 20 per cent on 2019 figures, and that has provided a cushion this year as international tourism fully reboots; let’s just hope we are really on our way with that reboot now.”
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