Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

NGHAM (—) (): I thank Senator Scarr for his question. I note his interest in relation to the impacts on the tourism industry in his state of Queensland and that of many, many colleagues who have engaged in relation to the challenges that our tourism industry is facing as a result of the combined effects of the bushfire crises that we've faced over the summer and the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on travel—globally but in particular from the crucial market of China.

Australia's visitation from China is the most significant of all of our international markets. In terms of expenditure, Chinese markets contributed to around 10 per cent of total visitor spend in Australia as part of our tourism industry over the last year. A significant part of that relates to the international education sector, but it also relates to all other aspects of the visitor economy—tourism travel, in groups or individually, and those travelling for business and event purposes.

In relation to the coronavirus, it's important to note that this downturn that we're feeling began prior to decisions that we made in relation to border security aspects for Australia. The Chinese government had already made decisions to suspend group-tour travel and had already cautioned its citizens against undertaking unnecessary international travel. We have engaged deeply with Australian industry over these last couple of months, in responding to the bushfires and coronavirus. I pay credit to my colleague, Senator Duniam, who has worked closely in this space both with affected tourism businesses and with other China-trade-exposed businesses, such as the seafood sector, in terms of engagement there, as indeed have many others.

Our visitation figures are coming off a significant high. In the September quarter, tourism figures showed record levels of tourism spend and visitation for Australia. That helps to provide resilience to the industry, but we certainly appreciate that these are tough times for many.