Chinese tourists regain top spot at Penguin Parade

Chinese tourists have regained the title of number one overseas visitors at the Phillip Island Penguin Parade for the first time since before the pandemic.
There have been 13,115 visitors from China from July to the end of October this year, compared with 3873 for the entire 12 months until the end of June.
Demand has accelerated since China endorsed group tours to Australia in August.
International tourists are an incredibly important market for the Penguin Parade, and there have also been strong lifts in visitors from Singapore, USA, the United Kingdom, Korea and India in recent months. Phillip Island Nature Parks tourism general manager Mark Anderson expects the strong growth to continue. “Traditionally, China has been our biggest and most important market at the Penguin Parade. Pre-pandemic overseas visitors represented 54 per cent of visitors, with China alone making up 21 per cent,’’ Mr Anderson said.
“We have seen our international visitors lift over the last couple months and China has become our number one international market again. We are now seeing up to 40 buses each night, and there is still a lot of pent-up demand.’’
“Overall, international visitation has grown to 20 per cent but trends are very strong and our target is to get back to 40 per cent over this year.’’
Mr Anderson and Phillip Island Nature Parks sales manager Debbie Buschmann will lead a Nature Parks delegation to China with Tourism Australia in the first week of December to re-build connections and accelerate the trend.
Phillip Island Nature Parks continues to re-build following the COVID-19 pandemic, and the rebound has been stronger than expected.
Overall visitation is back to 80 per cent of its pre-COVID levels, driven by strong domestic visitation, particularly local Victorian visitors, followed by NSW and Queensland.
Over the most recent school holiday period in September, the Penguin Parade experienced 12 sold-out nights.
“With international trends being so positive and a strong domestic market, we are expecting a very busy and successful summer period at Phillip Island,” Mr Anderson said.