City of Melbourne councillor Philip Le Liu calls for “redcoat” tourism guides to be based at Melbourne Airport

Melbourne’s City Ambassadors are very popular with hordes of tourist who visit the city. Now there’s a call to base them at a key city gateway.

Melbourne’s popular “redcoat” tourism guides could work out of Melbourne Airport if a city councillor gets his way.

Melbourne’s popular “redcoat” tourism guides could work out of Melbourne Airport if a city councillor gets his way.

The volunteer City Ambassadors currently provide information to tourists and other visitors at busy CBD spots like the corner of Swanston and Flinders streets, Queen Victoria Market and next to the Immigration Museum on cruise ship arrival days.

City of Melbourne red coat ambassadors will work out of a new visitor at queen Victoria market. Picture: Supplied

But international engagement portfolio chairman Cr Philip Le Liu wants the City of Melbourne to base the tourism ambassadors at the airport too.

“I’m very keen to talk about how we can get redcoat volunteers into the airport, that would be a great benefit,” he told a council meeting on Tuesday evening.

Cr Le Liu made the call as the meeting approved a proposal to send him to China to help Melbourne Airport chiefs get more flights to Victoria amid a rapidly growing Chinese tourism market.

City of Melbourne Cr Philip Le Liu wants City Ambassadors at the airport. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

However, fellow councillor Beverley Pinder, who chairs the people city portfolio, questioned why the council was paying the full $5000 cost of the July trip.

“I know that Melbourne Airport is owned by Australian Pacific Airports Ltd, a private corporation owned by institutional investors,” she told the meeting.

“And given that it is ratepayers’ funds that we are dispersing, perhaps a more cost-effective arrangement might have been shared costs.”

Cr Beverley Pinder has urged the city council to explore the Indian tourism market.

Cr Pinder said the proposed travel was important, but she sought “increased collaboration and transparency around such decisions for the future”.

“And perhaps management also could consider making roads to the Indian market, which is burgeoning in respect to tourism and international students,” she said.

“It augurs quite nicely for us to show that encouragement to another nation that is fast becoming a nation to reckon with.”

Cr Le Liu said that only 10 per cent of Chinese citizens currently had passports, but the annual number of passengers processed through Beijing’s new airport was expected to grow from 45 million in 2021 to 72 million by 2025.

“The market is actually amazing, I think that’s one of the reasons why Melbourne Airport is so keen to get on this,” he said.

The number of Chinese tourists is expected to rise dramatically in coming decades.

Greens councillor Rohan Leppert told the meeting that he personally struggled with moves to get more flights here.

We have a business plan for engagement with the Asia Pacific region which does include more flights into Melbourne, (which) contradicts pretty much the rest of my policy platform,” he said.

“But because it is consistent with council policy I think we should support this wholeheartedly.”

Support for Cr Le Liu’s trip was passed unanimously by the six councillors at the meeting out of the usual 11.

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