China reinstates Australia’s ‘approved destination status’ allowing return of tour groups

Tourism operators say it’s the ‘last piece of the puzzle’ as China gives the green light for tour groups to return down under.

Australia has been returned to China’s list of “approved destinations” allowing tour groups to again travel down under as well as independent travellers.

The move was hailed by Tourism Minister Don Farrell as “another positive step towards the stabilisation of our relationship with China”.

He said 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 $2.1bn in Australia, including about $581m spent by group travel participants,” said Minister Farrell.

“Australia remains a premium tourism destination for Chinese travellers, and we are looking forward to welcoming back group tours.”

Sydney Opera House is a permanent fixture on Chinese tour group itineraries. Picture: John Feder

For tourism operators, China’s move was the news they had been waiting for, calling it “the last piece of the puzzle for uninhibited travel to Australia”.

Experience CO chief executive John O’Sullivan said the decision would encourage Chinese airlines to add more services into Australia, including from “second tier cities” such as Xiamen, Fuzhou, Changchun and Wenzhou.

“Many of those cities had aviation services into the country prior to Covid, and they will now start to re-engage and resume and that’s really important for the industry now,” Mr O’Sullivan said.

“We’re currently back to about 70 per cent of international aviation capacity (into Australia) and it should start to accelerate off the back of that.”

Imminent announcements of more flights were expected from major carriers China Southern and China Eastern, with Brisbane the likely beneficiary.

Australian Tourism Export Council managing director Peter Shelley also welcomed the decision, which he said would bring “opportunities to businesses across the country”.

“As the first western nation to be granted approved destination status (ADS) back in 1999, Australian tourism has built a strong focus on this visitor market, which is all about group leisure travel,” Mr Shelley said.

“For those businesses with ADS approval who were previously focused on this market, there is a keen desire to get back to welcoming the Chinese visitor.”

Sydney Opera House chief customer officer Jade McKellar hailed the “great decision” as encouraging news.

“On average the ADS facilitated about 120,000 guests a year on Opera House tours, pre-Covid,” Ms McKellar said.

“About 25 per cent of our tours business was from China, and we spent a lot of time building good relationships with inbound tour operators, making sure the Opera House was part of their itinerary.”

For Tourism Tropical North Queensland, the announcement was tipped to accelerate the speed of the region’s recovery.

CEO Mark Olsen said prior to Covid, visitors from greater China represented 20 per cent of international tourists and now they accounted for about 5 per cent.

“This announcement presents a significant opportunity to regrow this valuable market which included a very strong education tourism sector from Taiwan,” said Mr Olsen.

The decision was well-timed, given the June 29 launch of Tourism Australia’s $125m “Come and Say G’Day” campaign in China.

Minister Farrell said the campaign was already proving a success, with the television commercial receiving over 66 million views across all channels.

“We know millions of prospective Chinese visitors are being inspired to Come and Say G’day, and we look forward to welcoming more of them to Australia as the ADS resumes,” he said.