New airlines service bring a wealth of benefits to a country’s economy and especially to its tourism industry. The Australia Tourism Export Council analyses the positive impact of new air connections to China.
Australia’s connection to key international markets, particularly the fast growing China market, has been further boosted today with the announcement of exciting new services right across the country, ATEC (Australia Tourism Export Council) Managing Director, Felicia Mariani said.
“Today we have seen a number of significant enhancements to our international connectivity and distribution across Australia with the introduction of China Southern Airlines services to Cairns, additional services to Brisbane and Virgin Australia’s announcement of increased capacity on the east-west route.”
“These announcements, along with a range of additional and new services announced over the past month, pave the way for renewed opportunity and reinvigoration for our tourism industry. These capacity increases prove that Australia is clearly being recognised as a desirable destination for our international visitors and carriers are responding by expanding their services to key regions across the country.
“China Southern represents a large domestic network in China that brings a substantial share of our Chinese market to Australia. Their expanding footprint in this country has been the impetus for other airlines to now build considerable internal capacity to distribute visitors across the country to some of our most sought after regional destinations.”
Ms Mariani strongly welcomed the partnership agreement signed today between Tourism Australia and China Southern Airlines which brings together three state marketing bodies to position Australia with ‘one voice’ to the Chinese consumer. “I commend TA and its STO partners, Destination New South Wales, Tourism Western Australia and Tourism Victoria, for their vision and foresight in agreeing to work together to better target their marketing strategies in this critical key market for growth to Australia.
“With limited budgets, and in markets as big as China, it is sensible and necessary for our state and national marketing bodies to join forces to maximise the impact of our international campaigns. This kind of alliance is well overdue and an excellent way to ensure we make the greatest impact and squeeze the most out of our marketing dollars.
“We are now seeing airlines making significant shifts in their services to and around Australia and this is no doubt due to the high desirability of Australia as a tourist destination. This is one half of the equation, the other is ensuring our products are well matched to the demands of the market and I believe our industry is on the path to bridging that gap.
“The important place the Chinese market holds in Australia’s tourism growth potential, coupled with these increases in capacity out of China, it is now even more critical that operators improve their ability to engage with Chinese visitors. ATEC’s new China Ready Program will ensure that our tourism operators across the country have the skills and tools they need in order to take full advantage of these opportunities that have long been heralded as the saviour for our industry.”
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
