The number of Chinese tourists visiting Australia over a 12 month period has smashed through the one million visitor milestone for the first time in the latest overseas arrivals figures released today said the Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF).

The ABS figures confirm that 1,001,200 Chinese tourists travelled to Australia in the 12 months to November 2015.

“More than one million Chinese visitors to Australia each year is great news for our economy because Chinese visitors stay longer and they spend more when they are here,” said Margy Osmond, TTF CEO.

“Chinese visitors spent more than $7.72 billion in the year to September 2015 according to the latest research which is over 200 per cent more compared to the $2.55 billion spent by our current largest tourist market of New Zealand.

“While this is a significant record that has been broken it still represents less than one per cent of the more than 100 million Chinese traveling overseas each year – a figure which is expected to double to 200 million by 2020.

“There is tremendous potential to capture more of the booming Chinese tourism market and grow our broader visitor economy with a stronger partnership between government and industry.”

Ms Osmond said putting the tourism sector and other growth industries at the heart of Australia’s future economic strategy was a key reason TTF has joined with other leading industry bodies in agribusiness, IT, financial services and international education to form the Future Economy Forum.

“The Future Economy Forum is a critical part of making sure that government and our stakeholders have a clear understanding of the economic importance of the visitor economy.

“We need a holistic economic strategy to ensure that the tourism industry can reach its full potential and support thousands of new jobs and economic growth for Australia.”