The Hunter Business Chamber says public infrastructure and mobile connectivity in the region must improve if we are to receive a share of the states $3.2 billion Chinese tourism boom.
The report, Getting Out There: Encouraging Chinese Tourism highlights the challenges faced by regional businesses in attracting those visitors and offers recommendations which can be adopted by Governments to capitalise on the Chinese tourism market.
Hunter Business Chamber CEO Bob Hawes cited a lack of transport infrastructure to and from Sydney as well as the unavailability of high-speed broadband as the main challenges holding Hunter businesses back.
"Certainly, there is a growing number of the Chinese tourists that are coming to Australia who are independent travellers, who don't rely on a group tour for the entirety of their stay and who might find it difficult to get outside of Sydney. It is also about the quality of tourist accommodation when the tourist does get here.
"But, most importantly, we know from the research that they rely heavily on their mobile devices for communication and information and particularly in regional areas, we are not geared up as well as the capital cities are, in that respect to have information available but also have that infrastructure in place so that they can use those facilities that they are used to and comfortable with to be able to research their trip and make decisions about where they are going and what they are doing," Mr Hawes said.
Mr Hawes concluded saying that capturing the Chinese market is not as simple as just producing a nice brochure, but that "the approach needs to be multi-faceted."
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| Hunter Business Chamber CEO Bob Hawes. Photo: Newcastle Herald. |
