Australia: Chinese Travellers No Longer "Sleep on the Bus" — They Want the Wheel in Their Own Hands

For thebridgereaches.com readers · Based on traveller interviews and destination data from China's 2026 National Day holiday period

For Australia's hotels and restaurants, the return of Chinese travellers is certain — but the people coming back are almost a different group from the pre-pandemic visitors who rode coaches, rushed itineraries and swept the duty-free stores. During the 2026 National Day Golden Week, Australia was among the most favoured destinations for Chinese travellers, with flight bookings from China to Australia in October up 19% year on year. In the 12 months to April 2026, 1.1 million Chinese visitors came to Australia and spent A$12.3 billion in the country, with China firmly remaining Australia's largest inbound tourism-spending source market.

But more informative than the total spend is the shift in how it is spent: Chinese travellers are abandoning the "big group," turning to small groups, self-drive trips and independent travel, and putting their budget into experiences rather than shopping. And the starting point of these decisions is often not in Australia — it is in the Xiaohongshu (RED) search box a few weeks before departure.

What has changed about them

The Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) puts it plainly: the China market is recovering, but "the shape of the recovery is different from the past." "We are seeing smaller groups, more independent travellers, and a stronger reliance on digital research and booking — reflecting a more confident, better-informed traveller."

The data bears this out. Before the pandemic, the ADS group-tour was mainstream: in FY2019 more than 300,000 Chinese visitors joined ADS groups. By FY2026 that number had fallen to 70,205. In its place came small-group quality tours and self-drive trips. The owner of a Melbourne travel agency told the ABC that her bookings had grown a lot over the past week, but "before the pandemic people preferred big group tours; now travellers lean toward small-group quality tours or self-driving trips."

The spending logic is also changing. Luan Fangliang, Greater China Regional Director at Tourism Australia, has observed that Chinese travellers "are more willing to put their spending into in-depth experiences such as motorhome self-drives and wine-mixing masterclasses, rather than traditional shopping." Customised small private groups are on the rise — several families with children of similar ages travelling together — and some travellers favour a "butler-style service," sending their itinerary brief to multiple custom operators via OTA platforms to compare proposals.

One detail easily overlooked but extremely important for hotels and restaurants: the decision window is shortening. L.E.K. research shows 91% of Chinese holiday travellers only begin considering a trip to Australia less than a year before departure, and industry feedback suggests the actual booking window may shrink to two weeks before departure. This means the gap between seeding and booking can be very short — short enough that a RED save turns into a flight ticket a few weeks later.

Interview: a Chinese traveller in Australia during the National Day period

Q: How did you travel this time?

A: The four of us rented a car and drove from Melbourne to the Great Ocean Road, two days. No tour — we just drove ourselves and stopped wherever looked good. I'd seen RED posts with photos of the little towns along the Great Ocean Road and felt it was far freer than a group tour.

Q: Why choose self-drive instead of a group tour?

A: Group tours are too rushed. We wanted to stop wherever we liked — for example, we saw a beautiful beach on the way and went down for a walk. I'd scrolled past quite a few RED posts warning about group-tour pitfalls — being pulled to shopping stops, itineraries rushed like military training — so from the start we never considered a big group. We booked our own B&B, stayed a night in Mornington, very quiet, and in the morning you could hear birdsong.

Q: Was there anything you felt glad to have known in advance?

A: On RED someone said some sections of the Great Ocean Road have poor signal, so it's best to download offline maps in advance. Glad I saw it, or I really would have got lost. Also, someone recommended a bakery in Apollo Bay for its scallop pie — we made a special detour to eat it, and it was especially good. If not for that note, we'd probably have just grabbed a sandwich at a petrol station.

Q: Will you come again?

A: Yes. We didn't get to Western Australia this time; Perth looks beautiful on RED, and it seems there aren't that many Chinese travellers there yet. Next time I want to do the Perth route, by self-drive.

Why "seeding early" matters for Australian businesses

Australia's position in Chinese travellers' decisions is special: it is a long-haul destination, more than ten hours' flight, with high decision costs. But once it enters the shortlist, both spending willingness and length of stay are considerable. The problem is that the way it enters the shortlist has changed.

L.E.K. research points out that about 46% of surveyed Chinese travellers use the internet as their main information source for researching Australian destinations, and the role of RED and WeChat in travel inspiration, itinerary planning and destination awareness keeps rising. RED's role in Australian destination discovery is especially prominent: more than 50% of its users were born after 1995, and user-generated travel posts frequently push obscure places into "must-go" destinations. Victoria's Lake Tyrrell is a typical case: between 2014 and 2016, Chinese social-media posts about the "mirror of the sky" salt lake and its stargazing conditions made the place blow up, and it remains popular to this day.

What does this mean for Australia's hotels and restaurants? Your location does not need to be on the "Sydney must-go list" — but it does need to sit under a specific search term. In a self-drive traveller's itinerary, there is little time left for "stumbling upon" anything. They will search, before departure, "Great Ocean Road what to eat," "Mornington B&B recommendations," "Perth self-drive route" — and if your restaurant or hotel shows up in those results, they may detour to you. If not, they go to the place next door.

There is another layer of change worth noting: the payment experience itself is part of the seeding. Chinese travellers in Australia are already used to Alipay and WeChat Pay; if a restaurant is recommended on RED and the visitor finds a familiar payment method on arrival, that smoothness turns directly into a good review and a second round of sharing. In a destination where a self-drive traveller may change locations three times a day, this feeling of being "caught and held" has more staying power than a pretty menu.

One sentence for Australian businesses: the self-drive traveller who flies more than ten hours to get here has no "just wander around" item in their itinerary. Your corner needs to be placed in their offline map before they depart.

Published by thebridgereaches.com. The interview is based on a composite of public shares and industry research from Chinese travellers to Australia during the 2026 National Day period; the person's name is a pseudonym. Sources: Tourism Australia; Tourism Research Australia; L.E.K. Consulting × Australia China Business Council joint report; Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC); Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC); Economic Observer and other public sources.