Arabic version: أستراليا تجذب مسافري الأسبوع الذهبي الصيني

According to ABC News, Australia was among the most sought-after destinations for Chinese travellers during China’s Golden Week holiday from October 1 to 7. The holiday coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival public holiday, giving people 13 days off.

Trip.com, a Chinese travel booking platform, reported that passengers were booking “longer and further trips beyond the region” this year. International Air Transport Association data showed flight bookings from China to Australia for October 2026 were up 19 per cent from October 2025.

Fei Chang and her husband travelled to the Whitsundays and visited beaches in Sydney. Ms Chang said she was surprised by the number of Chinese tourists in the Whitsundays. “At some tourist spots, it felt like I could almost speak Mandarin to everyone,” she said.

Melbourne travel agent Zhang Cheng, owner of Great Wall Travel Services, said her agency had received a surge in bookings over the past week and was fully booked with two-day Great Ocean Road tours. She said travellers now preferred “quality trips” in small groups or self-driven road trips rather than large group tours.

China was Australia’s second-largest inbound tourist market in 2025, according to Tourism Research Australia. Australia recorded 1.04 million visitors from China that year, up 17 per cent year-on-year, but below the 1.4 million visitors recorded before COVID in 2019. Austrade data showed 70,205 visitors took Approved Destination Status group trips in the 2026 financial year, compared with more than 300,000 in 2019.