China becomes new tourism frontier

THE names Show Lo and Rainie Yang may not mean anything to most Australians, but these Taiwanese pop stars have a combined online following in China and Taiwan alone of more than 25 million fans — greater than our nation’s population.

Their immense influence among the ever-growing middle and upper classes in modern day China who are able to holiday overseas is being harnessed by Tourism Australia with the celebrity duo starring in an online drama series being filmed in Australia this month to be broadcast to an audience of up to 10 million viewers.

By year’s end another 400 million Chinese viewers will tune into a travel channel to watch three winners of a Tourism Australia-run competition offered on popular Chinese news website Sina.com experiencing an Australian holiday, while millions of Japanese viewers will watch an episode of Mainichi Broadcasting’s morning show filmed in the Blue Mountains.

China leaped into third place in visitors to Australia last year — just below the United Kingdom — and the Australian Government is investing a record $30 million over the next three years in marketing directly to China.

A similar focus shift is happening in our region, with Blue Mountains Oberon and Lithgow Tourism (BMLOT) president Randall Walker revealing at least 50 per cent of the organisation’s international marketing expenditure will now target Asia, particularly China, Korea and Malaysia.

He said although the “big four” of international arrivals to our region remain Britain, Germany, America and New Zealand, mainland China (including Hong Kong) is now the Blue Mountains’ seventh largest source market representing 4.2 per cent of all international visitors for the year ending October 2011 and Singapore and Taiwan factor in the top 10.

“This is quite remarkable when you consider the year before China was ranked 11,” Mr Walker said.“The Chinese market will continue to grow and if we as an industry are not catering for and welcoming Chinese visitors we will be missing out on revenue and profit.

Source - bluemountainsgazette.com.au