Australia leveraging tourism exports to increase broader business links

Australia will leverage its tourism exports to build people-to-people and country-to-country relationships, developing a deeper cultural understanding to foster wider business development in the Asian century, the "Shanghai Night" gala dinner on Saturday heard.

Australia's economic future is tied up in the Asian region however business leaders have consistently argued knowledge of foreign language and cultures has been lagging.

The issue can be pinpointed to Australia's dire language education sector where changes from compulsory to language learning in junior years to voluntary in secondary and tertiary education have been falling. The proportion of grade-12 students studying a foreign language in Australia has dropped from 40 percent in the 1960s to 12 percent in the present school year, according to Asia Education Foundation.

"Tourism fosters a deeper knowledge and understanding of each other's culture, values and institutions, and provides opportunities to form new friendships and professional relationships that will endure for many years," Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in a message to the "Shanghai Night" gala dinner on Saturday.

"Shanghai Night" at the New South Wales state Parliament House culminated "Shanghai Week in NSW" that began on Thursday, a promotional campaign by the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Authority to foster two-way tourism with Australia's largest city, Sydney.

The resemblance between Shanghai and Sydney was the only reason the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Authority needed to host "Shanghai week in NSW" in Australia's largest city, the Economic and Commercial Councillor at the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Sydney Wang Hongbo told the dinner.

"Both are very open, both are huge and metropolitan, and both are really valuing this idea of multiculturalism, this idea of mutual understanding" Wang said.

Tourism isn't just about economic success and driving sustainable development, but increasing people to people links where differences are appreciated, but commonalties and values are developed and explored.

"The more Australian visitor that comes to Shanghai, the more Shanghai needs to come to Australia," Shanghai Municipal Tourism Authority vice chairman Cheng Meihay said.

"The closer that we come together, the better we understand each other, the more opportunities to further engagement at every level including tourism, trade and culture."

Shanghai Week in NSW was just a warm up for the 2017 China-Australia Year of Tourism where both governments will implement a program of events to promote a strong relationship through two-way tourism. Endit