Australia offers tourism promotion to Chinese free-traveling tourists. (photo by tourist Australia)
Australia will spend A $5 million to promote tourism to young Chinese urban residents to show them that remote areas of Australia are not dangerous, and even though there is no free WiFi, it is also worth visiting.
China is Australia`s largest source of tourists and international students, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, but there were fears last year that Australia`s two important export sectors could be damaged at a time of strained diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Chinese tourists contribute A $11.5 billion a year to Australia`s economic.
This week, Australia launched a large-scale tourism advertising campaign at billboards and subway stations in China`s major cities, featuring Australia`s beautiful natural scenery and a slogan, "untold Australia."
Tourist Australia will pay A $3.28 million for advertising, while other travel operators, including Qantas (Qantas), will pay A $1.78 million.
Australian trade minister Birmingham (Simon Birmingham) said: "Australia has enjoyed a certain degree of visibility among Chinese tourists, but we must continue to look for new ways to attract the Chinese market." He said the fastest-growing group of Chinese tourists is "free and independent tourists," who are younger, more adventurous and spend three times as much time in Australia as group tourists.
Last year, the number of "free and independent Chinese tourists" to Australia rose 18.8 percent, and the total number of Chinese visitors to Australia rose 5.5 percent to a record 1.42 million. There are as many as 10 airlines opening round-trip flights between China and Australia, with potential inbound traffic of up to 2.2 million.
While Chinese students spend most of their time in Australia`s major cities and spend half of their money on education, these "free and independent tourists" are also more likely to visit remote parts of Australia.
Australia`s tourism promotion is aimed at this group in order to attract them to continue to travel to Australia during the Spring Festival and other Chinese holiday rush hours.
But a report by (Tourism Research Australia), an Australian travel parade industry research group, says there are obstacles to attracting Chinese tourists to remote areas of Australia, with time (71 percent) being the main problem, followed by fees (32 percent).
The study also pointed out that Chinese society has a deep-rooted view of Australian tourism that travel to remote areas of Australia may be subject to personal safety threat. But the biggest dissatisfaction in the Chinese market with Australia`s remote areas is that there is no free WiFi..
This has become a major challenge in Australia`s tourism promotion, as half of the Chinese millennials are social media users and more than 1 / 3 will use travel review sites to plan their holidays. The report concluded that the lack of free WiFi in remote areas of Australia was a major obstacle to attracting the target group, limiting their chances of delivering real-time travel experiences.
The report also pointed out that remote areas of Australia are far from big cities and lack of means of transportation may also undermine the enthusiasm of Chinese tourists.
