Up, up and away: The ACT will shift its focus to capture a growing number of younger Chinese looking for experiences that the Canberra region can offer. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
The new wave of Chinese tourism to the Canberra region will be young, Westernised, big-spending independent travellers, but direct flights to the national capital on Chinese airlines are still years away.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr, back from a fruitful five-day trade mission to China, said the days of the tour bus were over, and the ACT would be revolutionising its approach to Chinese tourism to profit from a changed travelling demographic with different aspirations.
Mr Barr said direct flights hinged on lifting volumes to a level that would be viable for the likes of Cathay Pacific and China Airlines.
At present, about 750 Chinese travellers come through Canberra every week, still below the pre-COVID level of 1000. That needed to lift to 1500 to 2000 or more than 70,000 a year for the airlines to consider services.
Mr Barr said this was within reach, given the normalisation of relations between Australia and China in recent years and what the country, including Canberra, had to offer Chinese aged 20 to 45 looking for a very different experience from their mega-sized cities.
“Gone are the days of group travel, bus day trips out of Sydney with the demographic of the travellers being older, and essentially being taken to half a dozen key destinations here, put back on the bus and sent home,” he told Region.
“So that higher volume, low-yield market is, I think, one that’s consigned now to a pre-COVID era.”
Mr Barr said these Gen Z and millennial Chinese were much more Westernised, many speak English and were interested in exactly what the Canberra region can offer – uncrowded open spaces, clean air and environment, food and wine, and coffee.
He said coffee culture had hit Chinese cities, and the humble flat white was now listed on menus as an “Australian white”.
Direct flights are years away, but the required passenger volumes are within reach. Photo: Cathay Pacific.
The target demographic for Canberra would also be second- or third-time visitors to Australia who were now looking outside Sydney, the Gold Coast, or Melbourne and would spend two or three days in the Canberra region out of a seven- to 10-day trip.
They are influenced by Instagram or TikTok, and they organise their own travel or use a booking platform such as CTrip.
The ACT mission visited several of these platforms, and as a result, the ACT, with support from Tourism Australia, will enter into strategic partnerships with some of them.
“We won’t do any mass market advertising, it will be all through all those digital platforms and channels,” Mr Barr said.
“We’ll look at, through both Tourism Australia and Visit Canberra, visiting journalists and visiting influencer programs to bring some of the people who are going to influence travel decisions and show them Canberra.”
Mr Barr said direct flights would take time to achieve, but there may be opportunities for charter flights for students for the start of the academic year and Chinese New Year.
“We’ll also look to work with some of the other smaller jurisdictions, Tasmania being an example, where we may be able to get a flight, that would be Hong Kong, Canberra, Hobart. That might be a way to get sufficient numbers earlier,” he said.
The other possibility would be to connect with Sydney or Melbourne, similar to how Qatar Airways will operate.
Mr Barr also flagged new Chinese hotel brands for Canberra that potential visitors would be familiar with. These include Langham, Dorsett and Shangri-La, which have hotels elsewhere in Australia.
Mr Barr said the preferred pathway would be a hotel management agreement with a local developer, and there were several city developments in train that included hotels.
However, he also pointed to future land releases associated with the Acton Waterfront and the theatre project, which he described as once-in-a-century opportunities.
“Certainly the Acton Waterfront one, that part of the Lake’s equivalent of the Hyatt, is one opportunity,” Mr Barr said.
“It’ll be a beauty contest, and we’ll see who puts forward the best proposal.”
The election has provided some uncertainty over the future of international students, but the ACT’s pitch to China was very much about the University of Canberra and the University of NSW Canberra, which have a more direct relationship with the Territory government.
“They have capacity for growth, and both vice-chancellors are very much on board to grow their international student enrolments,” he said.
“Exactly what we can and or can’t do will be clear after the federal election result, so a lot of this is about setting up for the academic year 2026 and beyond.”
