当地时间11月24日，由中国旅游研究院与格里菲斯大学联合主办的“第三届东西方对话‘旅游与中国梦’国际会议”在澳大利亚黄金海岸举办。戴斌院长在开幕式上致辞，并发表了题为“中澳旅游合作的国家意志和民意基础”演讲。全文如下：

各位学界同仁，朋友们，

上午好！

Dear colleagues and friends,

Good morning!

It is my great pleasure to witness that in the past ten years there were significant achievements in China-Australia tourism exchanges. This could be a noticeable sample or case either in the framework of bilateral trading and cultural exchanges or in the view of world tourism development. From 2007 to 2016, as many as 7.3661 million Chinese citizens visited Australia, with an average annual growth of 14%. Especially in 2016, Chinese tourist spending in Australia amounted to 5.27 billion US dollar, and Australian tourist spending in China was 1.588 billion US dollar. The comprehensive contribution of tourist spending to service trading growth and employment was increasing. Recently, Chinese outbound tourism market returned to a new stage of steady development with a medium and low growth rate. Yet in the former three seasons of this year, there were still 1.161 million Chinese tourists to Australia, with a year-on-year growth of 16.1%. In the past ten years, the number of Chinese tourists to Australia kept increasing to a total of 6.608 million; and the growth rate again returned to the level of more than 10% in the former three seasons of this year.  

Well, I think I should stop talking data now. Or if I continue to list a series of data, this speech may sound like that given at a press conference for releasing statistics report. Here I would like to suggest that experts and scholars could interpret those data professionally from multiple angles such as politics, economics, and cultural studies, or those data could be the basis for experience review or and tendency prediction.   

China-Australia tourism cooperation is always developed under the framework of comprehensive strategic partnership between the two Countries, and practical and in-depth tourism cooperation effectively stimulates the joint efforts for maintaining the partnership. Since China and Australia established diplomatic relation in forty-five years ago, the partnership has been strengthening in mutual respect and parallel advance while overcoming the differences in national situation and political system. In the past eight years, China had been Australia’s first and largest trading partner. On 22 March of this year, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang published in The Australian a signed article entitled We Want to Work with You for Progress and Peace, in which Premier Li pointed out that the Asia-Pacific is where China survives and thrives, and it is also the common home of China and Australia. It is Premier Li’s hope that our two sides could take the China-Australia Year of Tourism as an opportunity to further facilitate two-way flows of people. Yes, China and Australia enhance mutual political trust, preserve the divergence, and establish economic and trading cooperation. Particularly in recent years, the leaders of the two Countries met with each other frequently at bilateral and multilateral meetings. This greatly promoted China-Australia partnership, as well as played a key role in the two-way flows of people including tourists.

Two months ago, at the Australian Embassy in China I held a specialized talk with the tourism administrators at the Federal level and regional level, and I was asked what was my opinion about the influence of social media on tourist’s choice of a destination. I replied that it was undeniable that the influence of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, MicroBlog, and WeChat on tourist’s choice of a destination became more and more outstanding, especially on younger tourists; or if taking the effects of audio-visual shows and those of public events on social media, the influence was unimaginable. However, the influence of social media, how matter we emphasize it, cannot replace the basic role of mainstream media and the key role of high-level interaction, let alone the decisive role of joint efforts and diplomatic relation. In the past ten years, Chinese outbound tourism market grew in a high speed. No tourist destination could neglect the generating of Chinese outbound tourists. More and more tourism promotion budgets were accounted for effectively attracting Chinese tourists in South Korea, Japan, The Philippines and other ASEAN Countries, India and other south Asian Countries, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, as well as Australia and New Zealand. Nevertheless, Chinese tourist’s choice of destination would be immediately and detectably transformed when the Chinese government expressed the attitude toward a relevant event, or the People’s Daily, CCTV, or the Xinhua News Agency had voices on the event. Or even some movie stars and celebrities would call to their fans, by which the choice of destination might be changed. But the information search and service demand would be quickly stimulated when the diplomatic relation between China and the destination Country or Region was improved, or when a high-level visit was effectively made. From this point, the most influential factor in Chinese tourist’s choice of a destination is the strategic position of China’s diplomatic relation with a destination Country or Region; and the high-level mutual visit is the most profitable intellectual property (IP), the Key Opinion Leader (KOL), or the “Internet celebrity”.

China-Australia tourism exchanges are always based on the support of people at both sides, and extensive tourism exchanges will further strengthen such support. China Tourism Academy and National Tourism Data Center carried out Chinese outbound tourist satisfaction degree survey in the twenty-seven major destination Countries or Regions in fifteen consecutive months, which showed that Australia ranked among the top five in the twenty-seven destinations, and the average score of satisfaction index in Australia was seventy-eight. Typically, Chinese tourists gave comments on Australia as “a good place for enjoying sunshine, experiencing the charm of nature, going outdoor exploration, or leading an easy life”, or “a very beautiful Country and very friendly people”, “a Country of happy life, for walking on streets, you can feel happy smile on the face of local people”, or “an ideal place for spending leisure time and holidays”. Of course, some tourists also “complained” in a humorous way: too many delicious food varieties might make them gain weight; or the Chinese language service was so perfect that they had no chance of using their good English. The score of Australian tourist satisfaction index in China was as high as 87.4 based on the data from Australian tourists interviewed in the former three seasons of 2017. Although the main motivation of Australian tourists to China was to enjoy natural scenery, visit famous cultural relics, or appreciate Chinese culture or art, more and more Australian tourists started to have interest in daily life information such as Chinese food, transportation, commodity price, and weather, or the factors of social development such as policy, law, regulation, image of citizen, environment, and hygiene. The turning of Australian tourist’s attention suggested that they would like to share and experience local people’s daily life in a destination. Tourists are no longer restricted to a simple bus tour between scenic area and hotel. They start to go into local people’s living space and make exchanges and communications with citizens