Posted on 04/17/2023 2:25:51 PM PDT by nickcarraway
When China ended a lengthy border closure in January, e-commerce marketer Tianni Ren immediately began planning a team-building trip for her 14 employees to Australia, hoping to see its stunning pink salt lakes that had captivated her on social media.
But instead, she took her colleagues from the city of Hangzhou to New Zealand after learning Australia was cut from a list of destinations approved by Beijing for group overseas travel, effectively halting a two-decade programme that had helped China dominate Australia's A$45 billion (US$30 billion) international tourism market until early 2020.
SNIP
After three years of struggle and anticipation, the widely expected wave of returning Chinese tourists Down Under has turned out to be a trickle as the visa rules - coupled with relatively high costs, a lack of flights and an exodus of Mandarin-speaking guides - squeeze Australia's fourth-largest export industry. In February, the first full month since China's border reopened, Australia recorded 40,430 short-term visitors from China, government data showed. That was one-fifth the number who visited in the same month in the record year of 2019 and well behind visits from New Zealand, the UK and the US.
(Excerpt) Read more at channelnewsasia.com ...
By the way over there its just called food
What is?
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