Mr. Shen (James Shen) is well aware of the profound implications of China`s government warning.
Born and raised in Shanghai, he was studying at the University of Melbourne at the time of the Year Nineteen Eighty-nine Tianan-men incident.
Mr. Shen became an Australian citizen. in 1990 when Labour Prime Minister Bob Hawke Hooke immediately granted asylum to all Chinese students studying in Australia
Today, he runs a travel agency that mainly serves Chinese tourists traveling to Australia. He has 35 full-time staff in four Melbourne offices, all bilingual Chinese-Australian, but more than half of them are suspended from duty for the outbreak and receive JobKeeper benefits.
"Business has been hard to do since the virus pandemic ," Shen said. "We have basically no business. "
In 2019, more than 20,000 Chinese tourists traveled to Australia before sinking, each paying between A $50 and A $10,000 for the trip.
virus blocking international travel isn`t enough. Over the past week, chinese government have issued directives reminding chinese citizen not to travel to australia, claiming that racial discrimination and violence are growing.
Given this warning, it is now difficult for Mr. Shen to continue last year`s momentum, and even the 2021 journey parade "largely unvisited ".
Shen`s current suffering is still closely related to the virus epidemic.
"I`m trying to keep hope ," Shen said, shrugging his shoulders. "More like a nation at the moment, China government very angry that Australia followed the United States so quickly (calling for an investigation into the origins of COVID-19). "
But tourism is still uneasy because last year Chinese tourists have become Australia`s largest single source market, with more than 1.3 million short-term tourists, even surpassing New Zealand. Chinese tourists accounted for more than 15.4% of last year`s record 9.4 million holiday visitors.
Earlier this year, Cheng Mingming, a senior lecturer at the School of Marketing at Cotting University, noted that Chinese tourists are also generous in spending money. The average cost per trip for Chinese is A $9235, compared with A $5943 for Germans, A $5219 for Americans, A $4614 for Japanese and A $2032 for New Zealanders.
"It means that Chinese tourists contribute about A $12 billion to Australian economic -27% of all international tourists ," Cheng said. "From a larger perspective, Chinese tourists helped create 0.6 per cent of Australia`s annual GDP. "
This does not include the international student market.
But Mr. Shen did not give up hope, pointing out that Chinese free-travel tourists have great potential.
"A few decades ago, when the Chinese began to apply for passports, travel to Australia was organized by Chinese government travel agencies. "
"I don`t mind losing the tour group. I just want to keep the free Chinese tourists. I` m sure they`ll come. "
Shen did not underestimate their determination. "Since I started my business in 1997 I started my business in 1997," he said. "Previously, Chinese tourists might want to see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, as well as go to the Gold Coast,
"Now they asked me to book them vineyards and restaurants. "
