China boycott punches massive tourism black hole

Tuesday 22 February 2022

As Australia’s international border reopens, there is one key country that will be missing at airport arrival gates: China.

Before the pandemic, China was by far Australia’s biggest source nation for international arrivals, accounting for around 1.5 million visits a year (15% of the total):

Chinese were also our biggest tourism spenders, spending $16.7 billion in Australia in 2019:

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.