Tourism Australia campaign to woo Chinese visitors back

A delegation led by Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison will launch a marketing campaign and meet airlines and travel service providers in China this week in a bid to attract Chinese tourists.

Later this week at an event in Chengdu, capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province, Tourism Australia will formally launch its Come and Say G'day Campaign, featuring mascot Ruby the Roo, according to News Corp Australia.

It comes as the industry said seat capacity on flights between Australia and China rose to about 54 percent of 2019 levels in recent months.

Harrison said the delegation will take part in meetings with major airlines and travel providers, showing Australia's commitment to working with partners to strengthen aviation capacity between the two countries and get travel bookings to Australia back to the levels seen in the past.

Don Farrell, the minister for trade and tourism, said the timing was right to invite Chinese travelers back to Australia.

"Chinese travelers have long been an important part of Australia's visitor economy," he was quoted by News Corp Australia on Monday.

"China was Australia's biggest market in 2019, with 1.4 million Chinese travelers visiting and contributing 12.4 billion Australian dollars (8.2 billion US dollars) in visitor spend."