AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRATION NEWS

South Australia Calls for Direct Flights from China

Friday, July 20, 2012

The head of Tourism Australia Andrew McEvoy suggests China's airlines schedule flights from China direct to Adelaide to boost tourism between the two countries.

South Australia (SA) received just 19,000 of the 542,000 Chinese travelers to Australia in 2011. According to Mr. Andrew McEvoy, former head of the SA Tourism Commission, SA has an incredibly wonderful natural environment but needs air capacity. He expects Chinese carriers would make big differences for SA tourist numbers.

Chinese travellers are now the biggest spenders in Australia. China is also the third major source of visitors to Australia after New Zealand and the UK, with an annual increase of more than 19 per cent last year.

The current advertising campaign "There's nothing like Australia", gained attention from China with 18 million downloads in the first month. "The advertising I am seeing coming out of SA is the best I have ever seen," said Mr. McEvoy. He added that SA could also attract Chinese tourists interested in food and wine.

SA Tourism Minister Gail Gago recently introduced new grants to make new SA tourism products more competitive. "This project will further assist Adelaide to become China-ready, which is critical to increase the state's appeal to one of our largest-growing target markets," said Ms. Gago.

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