NSW most popular destination for international visitors

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Created on Tuesday, 21 January 2014 15:16

Written by Editorial staff

The government of New South Wales has been working hard to increase the number of Chinese travellers opting to make short- and long-term visits to the state - as Australian migration agents may have noticed!

Premier Barry O'Farrell explained that China has a "massive middle class" that is eager to travel overseas and see the world, and organisations around New South Wales are well placed to benefit from this.

In addition to developing a China Tourism Strategy, which aims to see overnight visitor expenditure doubled between now and the end of the decade, the government of New South Wales has also been in talks with Chinese airlines to boost the "frequency and capacity" of their flights to the state's capital.

It's paying off. "New South Wales is the main driver of growth for the entire country - achieving almost double the national average growth in expenditure," announced Mr O'Farrell in a December 31 statement.

Mr O'Farrell revealed that New South Wales is now the most popular destination in the whole country, both for national and international visitors. This is largely due to an unprecedented boost in the number of Chinese travellers coming to the state.

Over the past year, this number has increased by a whopping 18 per cent to reach 28.5 million visitors. That means New South Wales is now welcoming more short- and long-term visitors from China than New Zealand!

It's a trend that shows no signs of slowing, either. Mr O'Farrell believes it will "only gain momentum in 2014" - so migration agents in New South Wales could be looking forward to a busy year.

In addition to China, travellers from a variety of other regions around the world have set their sights on New South Wales over the past 12 months. The number of visitors from Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong in 2013 rose by 18.8 per cent, 15.4 per cent and 13.5 per cent, respectively.

Taiwan also provided New South Wales with 11.2 per cent more visitors in the 12 months to December, while travellers heading from India to the state rose by 9.4 per cent.

Finally, the so-called "Western Market" also experienced notable growth, with visitors from France, the UK and the US also going up by 11.2 per cent, 4.4 per cent and 3.8 per cent, respectively, throughout the year.