Like many small tourism businesses across Australia, Jet Ski Safaris on Queensland’s Gold Coast has a problem – it’s not set up to deal with wealthy Chinese visitors.
“All our safety and instruction demos are in English,” explains the owner, who declines to give her name. “We can only send people out if they understand the briefings.” In order to get around this issue Jet Ski Safaris is considering pairing Chinese visitors with an instructor, but given staffing constraints that is a limited solution.
Official figures released on Friday underlined the growing importance of Chinese visitors to Australia’s A$34bn-a-year tourism industry, which can no longer rely on its traditional markets for growth.