Australia woos Hong Kong tourists to help restore pandemic-battered tourism industry, banks on pent-up demand | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3184636/australia-woos-hong-kong-tourists-help-restore-pandemic-battered-tourism
Australia woos Hong Kong tourists to help restore pandemic-battered tourism industry, banks on pent-up demand. Hong Kong was a top 10 international market before Covid-19 for Tourism Australia, which expects numbers to jump if quarantine requirements are relaxe. For the financial year ending in June 2023, Tourism Australia is targeting 121,000 visitors from Hong Kong – about 43 per cent of the pre-pandemic number
Australia is training its sights on tourists from Hong Kong amid an anticipated recovery in tourism as Canberra welcomes visitors to its shores after two years of Covid-19 curbs.Visitor numbers from Hong Kong remain at a fraction of pre-pandemic levels, but Tourism Australia expects that to change if and when the city relaxes quarantine requirements.“Hong Kong was a top 10 international market before Covid-19 and the first to achieve its tourism spend goal,” said Andrew Hogg, executive general manager for eastern markets and aviation with Tourism Australia, noting that reducing quarantine requirements in the city to seven days from as many as 21 is likely to release some pent-up demand for travel.Hongkongers averaged four international trips per year pre-pandemic, Hogg noted. “Australia ranks high in awareness and intention among other destinations,” he added. “Australia’s offerings continue to match the expectations of high-value travellers in Hong Kong under travel restrictions.”Tourism Australia has mounted a number of recent campaigns to promote its destinations and offerings to Hongkongers.In September, Tourism Australia, along with the Australian Trade and Investment Commission and Miramar Travel, launched thematic staycation packages called “Wanderful Australia”, allowing staycationeers at The Mira Hong Kong to enjoy themed rooms recalling Aussie experiences such as New South Wales’ jacaranda season or Melbourne’s coffee culture.In January, the agency also launched “Work and Play the Aussie Way”, a showcase of adventures young people could have while working and travelling in the country. A video series called “Australia in 8D” used a YouTube audio technology to “emulate the feeling of an Australian holiday”, with help from the Melbourne Symphony orchestra.
Australia expects full recovery for its tourism industry to arrive in 2025, Hogg said, including the Hong Kong market.
The tourism sector, one of the worst-hit when the pandemic broke out across the globe in early 2020, is a major contributor to the Australian economy. It is the country’s fourth largest exporting industry, accounting for 8.2 per cent of export earnings in financial year 2018-2019, data from Tourism Australia show.
International overnight tourists in Australia spent A$45.4 billion (US$31 billion), or 36 per cent of total tourism spending in the country, in 2019. The industry also employed 666,000 Australians in 2018-2019, making up 5 per cent of the country’s total workforce. In certain tourism-dependent regions, the impact is more magnified.After two years of keeping its borders shut to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Australia reopened to international travellers in February and has launched a promotion to get the sector back up and running.“Tourism was one of the first industries hit by Covid-19, and the sector’s contribution to GDP [gross domestic product] was down almost 50 per cent,” Hogg said.Hong Kong is one market that is likely to play an important role in the recovery, and despite the tough travel restrictions still being implemented in the city, Canberra believes that Hongkongers will still be willing to visit Australia.
For the financial year ending June 2023, Tourism Australia is targeting about 121,000 visitors from Hong Kong – about 43 per cent of the pre-pandemic number. The tourism authority expects tourists from Hong Kong to spend A$654 million, or about half of their previous spending.
Welcome back! Australia reopens its borders to fully vaccinated travellers after two yearsAs of March this year, international arrivals to Australia reached 520,000, including leisure and holiday arrivals and those visiting friends and relatives. Of those, 6,952 were from Hong Kong and 17,542 were from mainland China.Online booking platforms Booking.com and Trip.com have also recognised the pent-up demand for travel and have rolled out measures to attract travellers.“Booking.com rolled out an industry-first, the Travel Sustainable badge, to support our partners and customers in taking the next steps to become more sustainable, no matter where they might be on that journey,” said Laura Houldsworth, managing director for Asia-Pacific. “The goal of the badge is to enable travellers to make more informed choices when choosing their accommodations and provide industry-standard recognition to properties. Over 100,000 properties proudly feature the badge as an indicator of their efforts to be more sustainable.”
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