Melburnian1
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2013
- Posts
- 25,483
From the monthly inbound arrivals figures, it would appear that inbound tourism from mainland China to Australia is starting to slow, as the monthly year-on-year rate of increase has commenced a decline.
Given that the communist government has been known to use tourist numbers as a political tool - Vietnam and Philippines are two nations that come to mind where depending on their stance re the South China/ West Philippine Sea and mainland China's building of structures, tourist numbers from the mainland either magically jump or drop sharply - it is not impossible that China will view some recent statements from Australia as 'inflaming the situation.'
There may be other factors at play, such as mainland China's economic statistics being questionable, debt levels of many mainland Chinese companies high - look at how one Chinese investor is struggling to pay for an Australian acquistion (report in Australian media of a day or so ago) - and independent or group tourists themselves switching destinations if another is 'flavour of the month', along with more stringent controls on capital leaving mainland China and allegedly Chinese property investors not liking the new largely State Government taxes levied in recent times in Oz.
Do AFFers believe that numbers from mainland China will continue to rise at a rate of knots, be stagnant for a while then resume an upwards trajectory or are we entering a period when tourists decline in number from China to Oz?
If it's the latter, many Australian businesses may lose money (and airlines may be forced to reduce flight frequencies, or drop some of the less well known routes like Oz - XIY) but the biggest loser may be tourism commissions that have concentrated too much on one country as a source of inbound tourism to Oz.
Given that the communist government has been known to use tourist numbers as a political tool - Vietnam and Philippines are two nations that come to mind where depending on their stance re the South China/ West Philippine Sea and mainland China's building of structures, tourist numbers from the mainland either magically jump or drop sharply - it is not impossible that China will view some recent statements from Australia as 'inflaming the situation.'
There may be other factors at play, such as mainland China's economic statistics being questionable, debt levels of many mainland Chinese companies high - look at how one Chinese investor is struggling to pay for an Australian acquistion (report in Australian media of a day or so ago) - and independent or group tourists themselves switching destinations if another is 'flavour of the month', along with more stringent controls on capital leaving mainland China and allegedly Chinese property investors not liking the new largely State Government taxes levied in recent times in Oz.
Do AFFers believe that numbers from mainland China will continue to rise at a rate of knots, be stagnant for a while then resume an upwards trajectory or are we entering a period when tourists decline in number from China to Oz?
If it's the latter, many Australian businesses may lose money (and airlines may be forced to reduce flight frequencies, or drop some of the less well known routes like Oz - XIY) but the biggest loser may be tourism commissions that have concentrated too much on one country as a source of inbound tourism to Oz.
