Australia’s visitor economy will have a lot to cheer about this month with an estimated 81,000 extra Chinese visitors expected to visit Australia as part of Chinese New Year celebrations to welcome the Year of the Rooster according to an analysis by the Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF).

TTF has estimated that January will see a record-breaking 195,000 Chinese travellers visiting Australia, of which 81,000 will be coming especially for Chinese New Year celebrations.

This represents a total of $1.6 billion in Chinese visitor expenditure in January – $671 million of this the direct result of the Chinese New Year surge.

The first day of Chinese New Year is Saturday, 28 January, which will be followed by a week-long celebration of the Year of the Rooster by Chinese travellers in destinations worldwide.

“Chinese New Year is an absolute gold mine for Australia’s visitor economy with an extra 81,000 Chinese visitors anticipated to be heading ‘Down Under’ to celebrate their national holiday,” said Margy Osmond, TTF CEO.

“Thousands more visitors from China means more spending, and that will generate an additional $671 million in expenditure from just this one celebration event – representing 7 per cent of the $9.1 billion Chinese visitors spend over 12 months while visiting Australia.

“By our estimate, Chinese New Year will help to deliver a record-breaking 195,000 monthly visitors from China – a great start for 2017, and keeping China on course to become our biggest international visitor market (overtaking New Zealand) by the middle of this year.

“Chinese visitors spend on average $8,328 per trip, the highest spending of all nationalities visiting Australia.

Ms Osmond said the recent aviation agreement between Australia and China removing caps on the number of flights between the two countries, would continue to drive demand well into the future but Australia also needs to invest in sufficient infrastructure to handle the boom.

“Improving and expanding our visitor infrastructure is going to be the factor that determines whether Australia and our economy can take full advantage of the massive growth of tourism coming out of China and the broader Asia region.”