Chinese tourism to Australian state drops dramatically

CANBERRA - Chinese tourism to the Australian state of Tasmania has dropped dramatically after an influx in 2014, a report has revealed.

Tourism Australia statistics released on Saturday showed that there was a decline in Chinese tourists visiting the island-state of 14 percent from 2015 to 2016.

The decline comes after a boom in 2014 when Chinese visitor numbers went up 60 percent.

Anne Hardy, a tourism expert from the University of Tasmania, said the downward trend was nothing to be concerned about.

"In tourism, you have a rapid rise and then a flattening out, but we can still see a rise in actual numbers, it's just not as rapid," Hardy told the ABC on Saturday.

"I think we can still expect some great growth and some great yield coming from the Chinese market."

Tasmania's Premier Will Hodgman on Friday said the state remained on track to hit its goal of 1.5 million annual tourists by 2020.

"We are on track, but we need to maintain the current growth and momentum," he said at a press conference.

"We need to remain vigilant, we had a massive spike in the number of Chinese tourists to our state and indeed to our country, we need to make sure that growth is maintained. That's why it's important to invest in infrastructure and attractions to promote our state."