Last week, Queensland’s Palaszczuk Government announced a major boost to tourism funding — with a particular focus on capitalising on growth from the Asian markets. Tourism is an important industry in Queensland’s economy, contributing 3.5 per cent ($9.8 billion) to the State’s Gross Value Added, slightly more than agriculture (2.5 per cent)

It is not the first time that tourism thrives on the back of a mining boom. Past patterns have shown that tourism and the resources sectors follow somewhat connected life-cycles of growth and decline.

This current resurgence of tourism in Australia with phenomenal growth rates of, for example, over 20% for Chinese visitors might be different though. In particular the growing travel appetite by the young Chinese middle class has the potential to change the global travel landscape substantially. Consider this: it has been estimated that there are over 74 million University-educated (and often English speaking) young Chinese in the next 10 years who want to travel the world.

Click here to read the full article ‘Regional Tourism and Employment: Managing the opportunity‘ by Griffith Institute for Tourism Director Professor Susanne Beckon.