SYDNEY, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese market for Australia's tourism is showing strong growth, and the outlook for people-to-people exchanges between the two countries is highly optimistic, said the head of Australia's national tourism marketing agency.
"In terms of the connection between the countries and the importance of China, it continues to be one of our leading markets. We project it to be one of our leading markets in years ahead," Robin Mack, managing director of Tourism Australia (TA), told Xinhua at a briefing in Sydney on Friday.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, China was Australia's second-largest source of short-term visitor arrivals in the 2025-26 financial year, with 1,127,110 trips recorded, up 18.2 percent year-on-year.
China is leading the way with double-digit growth, and "that's something we've seen and continues for the last several months," said Mack, adding that the Chinese market is among "the ones that we focus our activity on."
According to the International Visitor Survey Results released by Tourism Research Australia, China continued to be the largest contributor to spend in Australia, making up 29 percent of the total spend in Australia in the year ending June 2026. During that period, holiday spend by Chinese visitors reached 369 million Australian dollars (about 259 million U.S. dollars), while visiting friends and relatives (VFR) spend stood at 121 million AUD.
Citing an L.E.K. Consulting forecast, Mack said Greater China is expected to deliver the largest potential incremental expenditure for Australia's tourism industry by 2028.
"I go to China at least twice a year with this role," the head of TA told Xinhua, "and I was there last July with the Prime Minister who was there. It was really an opportunity to put a spotlight on tourism because I think it's at the heart of people-to-people connections. Australians love going to China and the Chinese are coming to Australia. We just want that to grow both ways."
Mack also noted that more Chinese visitors are taking part in First Nations cultural experiences while in Australia, making China the third-largest market behind the United Kingdom and the United States.
Mack said TA has invested heavily in Chinese social media platforms such as Rednote, doing a lot of nuanced work and creating a series of spotlight activities to stay close to Chinese consumers.
"We've got the focus on 'the breadth drives choice'," Mack explained. "We want people in China and in all our markets to think, 'I know Australia for wildlife, I know it for welcoming people, safety and security.' But we want them to know Australia for food and drink and different elements that they might not think of immediately until they come. So we do a lot of activity, and we keep looking in and trying to tap into the trends of where the customers are." ■