In brief
At a Sydney briefing, Robin Mack, managing director of Tourism Australia, highlighted China’s double‑digit growth and its status as the country’s top source market. He cited 1.13 million trips and 29 % of tourist spend in the 2025‑26 financial year, and outlined future investment in Chinese social media and First Nations experiences. Mack expects Greater China to deliver the largest incremental expenditure by 2028, according to a L.E.K. Consulting forecast.
At a media briefing held in Sydney on Friday, 30 October 2026, Tourism Australia managing director Robin Mack told Xinhua that the Chinese market remains the country’s largest source of visitors and spend.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that China was Australia’s second‑largest source of short‑term visitor arrivals in the 2025‑26 financial year, with 1,127,110 trips recorded – an 18.2 percent year‑on‑year rise.
“China is leading the way with double‑digit growth, and that’s something we’ve seen and continues for the last several months,” Mack said, underscoring the market’s importance for people‑to‑people exchanges.
According to the International Visitor Survey Results released by Tourism Research Australia, Chinese visitors accounted for 29 percent of total tourist spend in the year ending June 2026.
During that period, holiday spend by Chinese visitors reached 369 million Australian dollars (about 259 million U.S. dollars), while visiting friends and relatives (VFR) spend stood at 121 million AUD.
In a discussion with Xinhua, Mack cited an L.E.K. Consulting forecast that Greater China is expected to deliver the largest potential incremental expenditure for Australia’s tourism industry by 2028.
“I go to China at least twice a year with this role, and I was there last July with the Prime Minister who was there,” Mack told Xinhua. “It was really an opportunity to put a spotlight on tourism because I think it’s at the heart of people‑to‑people connections. Australians love going to China and the Chinese are coming to Australia. We just want that to grow both ways.”
Mack noted a growing share of Chinese visitors engaging in First Nations cultural experiences during their stay, making China the third‑largest market for that sector behind the United Kingdom and the United States.
“We have invested heavily in Chinese social media platforms such as Rednote, doing a lot of nuanced work and creating a series of spotlight activities to stay close to the Chinese market,” Mack added.
The briefing also outlined Tourism Australia’s plans to increase investment in digital marketing aimed at Chinese travelers, leveraging popular social media and tailored content on the country’s own website.
Observers of the tourism industry have welcomed Mack’s projections, noting the sustained recovery of international travel post‑COVID and the strategic focus on immersive cultural offerings to appeal to Chinese visitors.
While the figures demonstrate a resurgence of Chinese tourist activity in Australia, they also reflect a broader trend of re‑establishing bilateral people‑to‑people ties amid a period of global travel normalization.
