The Australian media revealed on August 24 that the number of Chinese tourists visiting Australia has fallen by 80 percent in the last three months. Australian officials denied that the drop is related to current tensions in China-Australian relations, but the Australian media has generally linked the two together.

According to a report published in Australia's newspaper "The Age" on August 24, China is already one of the fastest-growing markets for the Australian tourism industry. Last year, 356,000 Chinese tourists visited Australia, generating 2.2 billion Australian dollars (AUD) of revenue. In the first quarter of 2009, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Australia increased by six percent year-on-year. In the recent past however, the number of Chinese tourists has dropped significantly. In June, the number of Chinese tourists fell by 21 percent year-on-year, while the total number of overseas tourists visiting Australia fell by only two percent. In the last three months, the number of Chinese tourists has fallen by 80 percent.

Australian officials linked the fall in Chinese tourists visiting Australia to the financial crisis and the A/H1N1 flu. The Australian media is not in complete agreement with this however. "The Australian" said that at present, relations between China and Australia are tense due to the Rio Tinto Stern Hu case and Rebiya Kadeer's visit, which will further affect the enthusiasm of Chinese tourists for visiting Australia.

Zhao Guojun, an expert on international relations from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the fall in Chinese tourists visiting Australian could be linked to the series of frictions between the two countries. He said that during this recent period, a number of Australia's actions have been extremely unfriendly towards China, and that this has negatively affected the feelings of ordinary Chinese people towards Australia.

By People's Daily Online