Dan Tehan says Australian tourism set to thrive without Chinese visitors

Tourism minister Dan Tehan says the government is unlikely to offer more assistance to the industry as strong demand from other countries will make up for the loss of Chinese visitors.

The US can expect a flock of Aussie arrivals over coming months with bookings soaring. Picture: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Strong demand for travel to Australia will help make up for the loss of Chinese visitors in the next year, and set the industry on track for recovery.

Federal Tourism Minister Dan Tehan told the CAPA Centre for Aviation conference on Wednesday, Chinese tourism was unlikely to reboot for some time, given the zero risk approach being taken by the country ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

In the years leading up to the pandemic, China was Australia’s greatest source of international visitors after overtaking New Zealand as our largest inbound market.

Mr Tehan said other travellers would make up any shortfall because “Australia’s star had shone bright throughout the pandemic as far as the rest of the world was concerned”.

“People want to come to Australia, and that is the message I’ve got very, very clearly, whether it be North America, Europe, Asia,” said Mr Tehan.

“We’re not likely to see Chinese tourism reboot for the first six months of next year, but what we will continue to see is Australians continuing to holiday at home and spending more.”

Although international tourism to Australia was currently limited to Singaporeans, Mr Tehan was hopeful of welcoming visitors from Japan and South Korea in the near future.

Since the two-way bubble with Singapore began on November 21, numbers had grown steadily to be 33 per cent of pre-Covid levels, he said.

“My hope is Europe, North America and the Pacific will follow Japan and South Korea and if we can continue to open up safely there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to bring those countries on board sooner rather than later,” said Mr Tehan.

Tourism operators hoping for an extra handout from government to help ramp up for recovery were likely to be disappointed however.

Mr Tehan indicated it was unlikely the government would provide further financial support for the industry, after “unprecedented” assistance throughout the pandemic.

“As we come out of the pandemic, government has got to get out of the way. That is what will ensure we do come out of this as strong as we can,” he said.

Interest in heading out of Australia continued to climb, with travel retailer Flight Centre recording three times the number of enquiries about international travel than domestic trips in the past week.

The US proved the biggest beneficiary of that interest, with a 45 per cent jump in trans-Pacific flights booked in November compared to the previous month.

Overall, international bookings were up 70 per cent in November from those in October, with Fiji and Indonesia also attracting plenty of travel dollars.

Flights to Queensland remained the most searched for on the domestic front, with borders due to open to New South Wales and Victoria on Monday.

Mr Tehan said the imminent reopening of Queensland borders was “wonderful, wonderful news”, and praised South Australia’s decision to remain open despite rising Omicron cases.

“We obviously want to see Australia become whole again, and our hope is the West Australian state border will open sooner rather than later,” Mr Tehan said.

“If we can get Australia whole again it will help boost further international tourism coming back to this country. One of the things that is little known is that international tourists don’t come to visit one state, they want to travel to at least two, three or four states.”