Skift Travel News Blog

Australia has recommenced visa processing for Chinese group travel, Australia’s Ministry of Trade and Tourism announced on Monday.

The visa processing restart follows China’s lifting of pandemic-era restrictions last month on outbound group tours to Australia, the U.S., Japan and multiple other countries.

Australia reopened its borders to international travel in March this year. Since its reopening, Chinese tourism has slowly returned. In July, it reached 79,040, which was 50% of its pre-pandemic level.

Before the pandemic, China was Australia’s largest inbound tourism market in terms of spend. In 2019, Chinese group tours spent $581 million, which was about one-third of all Chinese travel spend in Australia.

“The resumption of Chinese group tour travel will provide another welcome boost for Australia’s hard-working tourism operators,” said Australia Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell.

The U.S. hosted 51 million international visitors in 2022, amounting to 64 percent of its 2019 volume, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office’s latest data. Outbound travel from the U.S. totaled 80.8 million, down 19 percent from its pre-pandemic volume.

About 24 million traveled from overseas, i.e. not Canada and Mexico, up 161 percent from 2021. Western Europe was the largest regional source market with over 10 million visitors. South America came in second with 4.2 million. 

Among overseas countries, the UK was at the top with 3.5 million, followed by Germany at 1.5 million and France at 1.3 million. In 2022, New York was the largest point of entry at 4.5 million, Miami at second with 3.8 million, followed by Los Angeles at 2 million. 

In December, international inbound volume rose 46.2 percent year over year to 5 million, representing 73 percent of its pre-pandemic December volume. Overseas visitor volume to the U.S. totaled 2.5 million, representing 94 percent of its pre-pandemic December volume.