Chinese Tourists the New Big Spenders Down Under

 

CASHED-UP Chinese tourists are set to exceed the combined outlay by visitors to Australia from the UK and New Zealand within two years. 

That is the verdict of Deloitte Access Economics in its latest Tourism and Hotel Market Outlook report.

The report highlights the changing face of Australia’s tourism market as strong income growth in emerging Asian economies, particularly China and India, increasingly drives growth in international visitor arrivals.

China has already overtaken Japan to become Australia’s third-largest inbound visitor market behind New Zealand and the UK with annual growth averaging 13 per cent over the past decade. And it has surpassed the UK as Australia’s largest market in terms of visitor nights and expenditure.

“By 2014, expenditure from the China source market is expected to exceed the UK and NZ markets combined,” the Deloitte report states.

Deloitte says arrivals from China could account for more than one third of the forecast growth in international visitor nights over the period to 2014.

The high Australian dollar – which Deloitte predicts will remain close to parity until 2013 – will ensure outbound travel by Australians will continue to grow solidly, considerably outpacing growth in international arrivals.

The preference for Australians to travel overseas, rather than domestically, is creating challenges for tourism operators. “Unlike domestic travellers, who often holiday in regional areas, international visitors tend to spend the majority of their time in capital cities,” Deloitte says.
“As the tourist mix shifts towards international visitors, therefore, tourism expenditure becomes increasingly concentrated in capital cities.”

Hotel occupancy rates in Sydney are the highest in Australia and expected to increase from 85 per cent in 2012 to 88 per cent in 2014.

By comparison, room occupancy rates on the Gold Coast are forecast to pick up from 65 per cent last year to 68 per cent by the end of 2014.

“This improvement in occupancy rates is largely due to fairly flat performance in room rates, which are expected to only grow broadly in line with inflation over the next three years.”