Australia welcomes China groups but outbound demand remains low

Australia’s return to China’s Approved Destination Status is good news for the local business sector but reciprocal group travel to the world’s second largest economic country appears to remain a low priority.

The Australian government, Tourism Australia (TA) and the travel sector are understandably upbeat about recent news that China is now allowing outbound group travel to countries including Australia. Immediately after the announcement by China, Australian Minister for Trade and Tourism, Don Farrell, said it was “welcome news for our nation’s tourism operators, and will provide a boost for the visitor economy.”

Farrell said it was also another positive step towards the stabilisation of Australia’s relationship with China. Prior to the pandemic, China was the largest and most valuable inbound traveller market for the Australian visitor economy.

In 2019, more than 1.4 million holidaymakers from China spent A$2.1 billion (US$0.775 billion) in Australia. Tourism Australia has continued to maintain its visibility in China over the past two-and-a-half years despite the inability for many Chinese to travel. In late June Tourism Australia launched the A$125 million Come and Say G’Day campaign in China.

TA managing director, Phillipa Harrison, said the return of Chinese group travellers is great news for Australia. “Chinese travellers have been returning to Australia in growing numbers since the start of the year and the return of the group travel segment will provide another important boost,” she said.

The Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) has also remained active in Asia and since the start of the new financial year on 1 July 2023, it has secured 17 Asian incentive groups. These are not only from China but Taiwan, Indonesia, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand and India.

MCB chief executive, Julia Swanson, said: “The MCB’s efforts to grow this market back to its full potential has been rewarded with 19% of wins in this segment to date hailing from China,” she said.

The International Convention Centre Sydney’s CEO, Geoff Donaghy, is also anticipating greater business from China. He said: “ICC Sydney is delighted to have already confirmed event bookings from China, the first of which will take place later this year,” he said.

However, outbound travel will remain weak for the short term. With a long period of little to no activity from China, some of the leading local DMCs and incentive travel management companies will be focussing on other markets in the short to medium term.

Tanya Wick, head of Totem, said the company had not had any group enquiries for China and could not see a future of groups returning to China anytime soon.

Two other top tier DMCs, who did not wish to be named in this article, said their businesses were unlikely to take up any offer of being involved in Chinese business in the foreseeable future.

It should be noted, however, that this is not the stance of the government or other business tourism organisations.