Tourism-related real estate and hotels in Australia are drawing increasing interest from Chinese investors following the implementation of the Sino-Australian free trade agreement and the booming development of tourism in Australia. Chinese tourism and investors boost Australia's hospitality industry The Australian Financial Review reported citing the latest statistics that Australia received 7.1 million visitors in the 12 months up to September 2015, among them 13% or 928,000 were from China. The Australian Trade Commission forecasts that by 2025 Australia will welcome more than 10 million overseas visitors from major source markets such as the UK, the USA, China, Singapore, Korea and India. Australia’s booming tourism industry has prompted government and private organizations to invest heavily in soft and hard infrastructure. One study by STR Global shows that 6,450 hotel rooms are under development in Melbourne, and an additional 3,300 and 3,500 hotel rooms are also being built in Sydney and Perth respectively to take advantage of the unprecedented boom in the hotel industry in the coming year. About 28% of hotel assets on sale in Australia in 2014 were snapped up by Chinese investors, and hotel property related transactions in Australia and New Zealand involving Chinese investors reached AUD$2.75 billion, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.(Translation by David) |