Kiwis are set to lose their stronghold as Australia’s number one international market to Chinese travellers sooner than you’d expect, if current trends continue.
New Zealand has topped the list of international arrivals for years, but new predictions suggest the weakened Australian dollar, our proximity to Asia and the steady incline in arrivals from the region, will see tourists from China and Hong Kong overtake Kiwis by as soon as mid-2016.
According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics, Chinese visitors have already starting nudging their way closer to New Zealand figures, with around 953,200 Chinese tourists visiting during the first eight months of the year as well as some 212,400 from Hong Kong.
The coupled figure of 1.16 million is only slightly behind the 1.29 million Kiwis that crossed the ditch over the same period.
Economist, Savanth Sebastian, told The Herald Sun, that based on the current trend, our neighbours across the Tasman will be bumped from the top spot by around June next year.
He believes the growth of the New Zealand market will further benefit the Australian economy because their ‘spending power far exceeds’ New Zealand’s.
This is because they tend to try and fit more of the country in during one visit. This includes shopping, site seeing, visiting attractions, undertaking various activities and more.
“I think the spending power of Chinese and Hong Kong tourists far exceeds what we see out of New Zealand.”
Savanth Sebastian, CommSec Economist
Meanwhile, the UK and USA remained Australia’s fourth and fifth largest tourism markets during August, ahead of travellers from Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, India and South Korea.