In brief
Robin Mack, managing director of Tourism Australia, said Chinese tourism continues to be the country’s largest contributor of spending with 18.2% year‑on‑year growth in the 2025‑26 financial year. Plans include deeper engagement on Chinese social media and First Nations cultural experiences. Forecasts predict larger incremental spend from Greater China by 2028, though details remain uncertain.
At a briefing in Sydney on Friday, Tourism Australia chief Robin Mack told Xinhua that Chinese visitors remain Australia’s largest source of tourism spend, with the market growing at an 18.2 percent double‑digit rate in the 2025‑26 financial year.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported 1,127,110 short‑term trips from China, a rise of 18.2 percent year‑on‑year. Although the country was the second‑largest source of arrivals, Chinese tourists accounted for 29 percent of total tourism spend in the year ending June 2026, according to the International Visitor Survey Results released by Tourism Research Australia.
Holiday spend by Chinese visitors reached 369 million Australian dollars—about 259 million U.S. dollars—while visits to friends and relatives added an additional 121 million AUD to the domestic economy.
Mack said Greater China is expected to deliver the largest potential incremental expenditure for Australia’s tourism industry by 2028, citing an L.E.K. Consulting forecast.
“I go to China at least twice a year with this role, and I was there last July with the Prime Minister. It was really an opportunity to put a spotlight on tourism because I think it's at the heart of people‑to‑people connections,” Mack said.
He added that the Chinese market is “among the ones that we focus our activity on” and that it continues to be “one of our leading markets” in the years ahead.
To strengthen ties, Tourism Australia has heavily invested in Chinese social media platforms such as Rednote, engaging Chinese audiences with a series of nuanced spotlight activities.
Mack noted a growing trend of Chinese visitors taking part in First Nations cultural experiences, a development that has positioned China as the third‑largest market for these cultural encounters, behind the United Kingdom and the United States.
Despite the strong growth figures, Tourism Australia has not disclosed the specific scale of its upcoming investments or the full impact a 2028 incremental spend could achieve.
Future uncertainty remains around the sustainability of the growth in Chinese tourism, the exact influence of Tourism Australia’s social media strategy, and how evolving bilateral relations may affect the projected expansion of people‑to‑people exchanges highlighted by the agency.
