Chinese visit could yield over $5 billion in tourism revenue

The nation’s peak accommodation body has welcomed the focus on tourism during Prime Minister Albanese’s visit to China, saying it could assist in achieving up to a $5 billion in tourism boost to the economy.

“It’s great to see the Prime Minister strengthening the relationship with China and prioritising our travel and tourism sectors,” Accommodation Australia CEO James Goodwin said.

China is critical to Australian tourism and the accommodation sector.  It is currently the second highest country of origin after New Zealand, with 936,450 Chinese visitors in the year to April 2025, up 23 percent on the previous year.

This compares with over 1.44 million arrivals from China in the year before the pandemic.   

“There’s been steady growth in the past few years, but we’d love to see Chinese visitor numbers continue to increase, and even better if they return to close to the numbers coming here before COVID hit,” Mr Goodwin said.

There has rightly been a lot of focus in the Chinese relationship on trade of physical products but tourism is a major export earner supporting close to three quarters of a million jobs in the Australian economy.

“In the year ending March 2025, Chinese tourists generated over $9.2 billion in tourism revenue, and they spent over 7 million nights in Australian hotels and resorts.  A return to anything close to the pre-pandemic visitation could yield a further $5 billion in revenue.

Chinese travellers love what Australia has to offer so we welcome more promotion of not just capital cities but our amazing regional attractions and support making it easier for people to travel here

“The efforts of Tourism Australia in signing an MoU with Trip.com, the world’s largest booking platform, and also their promotional efforts in this important market are also to be congratulated.”  Mr Goodwin said.