‘Asian Century’ leads to influx …

Sydney :Chinese tourists are visiting Australia in record numbers, helping offset a fall in travellers from traditional western markets such as the UK.

The number of visitors from China grew by 17 per cent over the past year, jumping an even greater 27 per cent during January for Chinese New Year celebrations.

Tourism Australia said the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show an industry in transition, with a significant shift away from the “far world” towards the “near world” during what is being touted as the “Asian Century”.

China and South East Asian countries are leading the way.

The number of tourists from Hong Kong rose 22 per cent, Taiwan 19 per cent and Indonesia nearly 14 per cent.

Overall there were 5.9 million visitor arrivals for year ending January 2012, a decrease of 0.2 per cent to the previous year.

But international arrivals jumped nearly five per cent in January, thanks to Asian visitors coming to Australia to celebrate Lunar New Year, according to industry body the Tourism and Transport Forum.

TTF chief executive John Lee said China represented a massive opportunity for the industry, which is why Tourism Australia is rightly focusing on lifting its presence in more Chinese cities.

While Oprah’s Australian TV specials focused on the American market, in recent times Tourism Australia has been doing more to focus on Asia.

Show Lo and Rainie Yang – two Taiwanese pop singers and TV stars with a combined online following of more than 25 million fans – are currently in Australia filming a new online drama series.

Shot in Victoria, Tasmania and NSW, the show will be broadcast online to up to 10 million viewers across Greater China.

Mr Lee said Australia has enjoyed Approved Destination Status for China longer than all of our rivals, and Chinese visitation has risen on average 11 per cent per year since 2001.

But Mr Lee said China’s potential was also recognised by our competitors, who were making substantial investments to attract Chinese tourists.

The most recent annual figures show more than one million Chinese travelled to the US – up 36 per cent on the previous year.

While smaller numbers of Chinese are travelling to the UK and Canada, they are also seeing faster growth than Australia, at 32 per cent and 24 per cent respectively.

“These figures clearly demonstrate the urgency of increasing the support for Tourism Australia’s activities in China and better leveraging the presence of other Australian departments and agencies in China to promote Australia as a destination for business, leisure, investment and study,” Mr Lee said.

Outbound travel by Australians rose nearly five per cent in January, with the annual growth slowing to 9 per cent.

The number of Australians travelling to Thailand rose by nearly 18 per cent, the US 11 per cent and Vietnam more than 12 per cent.-news.com.au