Opinion | Australia needs Chinese visitors: economic impact of coronavirus travel ban could be huge

China is now Australia’s largest source of international visitors, with Chinese travellers helping create 0.6 per cent of the country’s annual GDP

The coronavirus travel ban came at just the right time to disrupt the plans of thousands of Chinese students coming or returning to Australia

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Short-term arrivals in Australia from China overtook those from New Zealand in 2017. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:30am, 13 Feb 2020Updated: 11:14am, 13 Feb 2020

Australia has joined New Zealand, the United States, Indonesia, India, Israel and other countries in deciding to refuse entry to all foreigners flying from mainland China, or who have recently been there.

These bans dramatically escalate the potential economic impact of the novel coronavirus.

Over the past two decades China has grown from a minnow to a whale in international travel. Not counting mainland Chinese visiting Hong Kong and Macau, about 76 million in 2018, data from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation show the number of Chinese going abroad climbed from 2.8 million in 1997 to about 73 million in 2018.

This places China fourth in terms of international visits, behind Germany (about 92 million), the United States (88 million) and Britain (74 million).

Rise of the Chinese traveller

Besides Hong Kong and Macau, Chinese travellers most visit neighbouring nations – Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, South Korea and Singapore. Next is Italy, then the United States and Malaysia.

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