In the two weeks either side of lunar new year, Mandy Ho, who manages a hot air balloon company in Melbourne, has many balls in the air. Most mornings before dawn, when weather permits, her colleagues fly Chinese tourists from the vineyards of the Yarra Valley over Melbourne’s eastern suburbs to parkland on the city’s fringe. Interpreters make sure nothing is lost in translation. Ho has spent weeks preparing tourists and arranging buses to collect them from hotels. She’s already met some of them while running the company’s Mandarin smartphone…
Tag: Tourism (Australia)
Chinese tourists to resume group travel to Australia in latest thawing of relations between countries
Airlines are preparing to cater for an increase in Chinese tourists to Australia after China’s government announced group tours to the country could resume, as the relationship between Beijing and Canberra continues to thaw. China’s culture and tourism ministry named Australia, as well as countries including Japan, South Korea, Britain and the US, in an updated list of destinations that Chinese tourism agencies can run group tours to for the first time since outbound travel was halted due to the pandemic. Thursday’s announcement is the third such list, and followed…
Travel between China and Australia tipped to rebound rapidly as Chinese airlines ramp up flights
Chinese airlines are ramping up flights to Australia as Covid restrictions ease, boosting the prospects for a rapid rebound in travel between the two nations. Airports said the market was dynamic with carriers large and small restarting routes dormant during the pandemic years, with more flights likely to be added as demand picks up. Lengthy quarantine requirements for travellers to China since 2020 saw passenger flights largely stopped between Australian cities and mainland China. Melbourne, for instance, went from about 70 flights a week to just one while routes between…
‘We are ready’: relief and excitement builds in Thailand with Chinese tourists set to return
After almost three years of little to no business, Thai tour guide operator Anchalee Vittayanuntapornkul is more than relieved that Chinese tourists will soon be allowed to travel again. “I’m sure if you ask anyone in the tourism industry, the only nationality that they are waiting to see come back is the Chinese tourists,” says Anchalee, who is based in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. On Sunday, China scrapped the requirement for inbound travellers to quarantine, making holidaying abroad much easier. The policy change is expected to boost the tourism sector…