Tourism could be Australia’s golden ticket

Tourism could be Australia’s golden ticket
By Daisy Melwani


Tourism can be the country’s fastest growing sector of this decade but would need government support, according to minister for trade and investment, Andrew Robb.

Speaking at the inaugural Tourism Australia ‘Destination Australia Conference’ in Sydney this morning, Robb said in order for tourism to grow it requires “vision, courage and a huge injection of capital”.

“It is a bold but attainable ambition due to the never-to-be-repeated phenomenon going on in the region around us. Tourism is already our largest services export,” Robb said.

“Last year, 100 million Chinese went on an international holiday. The Chinese tell me that by 2020 this is set to double to some 200 million. So the opportunities are immense but they will not fall into our laps.”

Key priorities to achieve goals are in aviation, visas and infrastructure “to ensure Australia can surf the tidal wave of demand ahead”.

While the government earlier this year announced a tripling of air capacity over two years between Australia and China from 22,500 seats per weeks to 67,000 per week, it will also hold aviation talks with Qatar, Malaysia and Indonesia to possibly increase capacity.

A competitive visa system, including multiple-entry visas for Chinese visitors “is essential to our tourism success”, according to Robb, as trials for online visa lodgement in China and India go underway by the end of 2015.

“Since taking office we have more than doubled the number of countries eligible for online visitor visa lodgement, and it is important we continue this work to make it easier for international visitors to inject their tourism dollars into our economy”, he said.

Last month Robb stated an additional 20,000 new rooms, or equivalent to 16 new hotels per year until 2020 were required to meet growing demand.

Robb highlighted the Dalian Wanda group’s $900 million triple-tower, beachfront resort on the Gold Coast as “the sorts of premium investments we will need to ensure tourism can meet its potential as the fastest growing sector this decade”.

Image: Pozible

Latest News