Australian tourism competition to lure Chinese visitors

The competition is part of Tourism Australia's newly launched global promotion There's Nothing like Australia and requires participants to share their photographs and videos showing their travel experience in Australia along with descriptions on the website: www.nothinglikeaustralia.com.

All visitors to Australia, unless they have an Australian or New Zealand passport, must have an Australian Tourist Visa. The most common of those tourist visas is the ETA Visa, which allows the holder to enter Australia for up to three months for tourism purposes.

The Tourism Australia website features an interactive map of Australia, which incorporates personal experiences showcasing the unique and varied attractions of Australia.

The map is available in 15 languages, and features 3,200 experiences from a total of 30,000 images and stories submitted by Australians. Selected responses from Chinese travellers in the campaign will be added to the digital map.

Australia was the first Western destination to receive approval to host Chinese travel groups in 1999 and China is now the largest source of Asian travellers to Australia. Last year, more than 366,000 Chinese visitors travelled to Australia, and this year Australia received 360,000 visitors from China before May.

Tourism Australia anticipates the number of Chinese tourists to the country will increase by 15 per cent by the end of the year.
The latest Visa PATA Travel Intention Survey, found  more than half the Chinese mainland travellers surveyed intend to travel to Australia over the next two years.

The Australian Visa Bureau is an independent consulting company specialising in helping people lodge their Australian Visa application  at the Australian Embassy.