Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

An hour ago, the first direct flight from mainland China to Darwin landed safely. Darwin welcomes Chinese tourists to the Territory. Donghai Airlines' twice-weekly service from the city of Shenzhen to Darwin officially began this morning. I want to congratulate the NT tourism minister, Lauren Moss, who was on that inaugural flight, along the chief executive, Yang Jianhong, and a full plane load of VIPs, journalists and first-flight tourists, importantly, that today herald a new beginning for tourism in the Top End.

There is obviously a huge and growing Chinese market, with so many Chinese tourists looking to us as an interesting and very safe place to visit. There are 18 million people in the city of Shenzhen, and we now have a direct flight from Darwin to that city. The NT government's goal is 30,000 Chinese tourists by 2020. Darwin is Donghai Airlines' third international port, with direct flights into Thailand and Vietnam having been initiated a few months ago. Darwin, of course, has an advantage over Sydney and Melbourne for these Chinese coming from Shenzhen—a 5½ hour flight and they're in the Top End of Australia. Compare that to my flights to get down here from Darwin to our national capital. I can be on a plane and waiting in transit for anywhere up to eight hours. Donghai Airlines has many internal Chinese links and Shenzen has many international links, so it can be a real hub not only for people from around Australia to visit the Top End; you can then bounce with Donghai Airlines into China to explore China.

Recently, I held a tourism ideas fest, where we had industry coming together with entrepreneurs and innovators to discuss the ways that we can make sure that what we're doing has some appeal to those Chinese tourists, because we want them to come back. I was pleased to see that the Australia China Business Council in Darwin are holding a One Belt, One Road conference on 10 and 11 July. Darwin, as the capital of northern Australia, is our closest city to China, and will link into China's huge trade and economic development push into Europe and South Asia. It's a very exciting time, and I commend Daryl Guppy and his team for their initiatives.