Tourism still strong thanks to Australia’s casinos

There have been more than a few occasions in these pages that weve have chance to talk about the simmering feud between Echo Entertainment and James Packers Crown Casino Group, and the recent figures on inbound tourism make us think that things will only be hotting up. Australia is a popular destination for gambling tourists weve known that for years.

What weve also established beyond too much doubt in the past few years is that Australian casinos have a major part to play in making Australia a great destination for tourists. Theres lots of competition for them with other Australian casinos, and with great online casinos like Spin Palace Casino and Ruby Fortune Casino that can reach Australians in their homes.

Even more so now with the mobile casinos reaching us wherever we can get a signal. But we dont see signs of the casinos slowing the pace of their investment in great new and renovated facilitates for gamblers to enjoy, whether theyre from overseas, or from closer to home.

The figure that has prompted this latest burst of comments from tourism chiefs and casino owners is an almost 20% increase in Chinese tourist arrivals last month. Thats significant because its a rate that will put Chinese tourism ahead of British, and make them our second-largest tourism market.

So theres lots of incentive for tourism executives and casino moguls to draw in the new wave of Chinese tourists. John ONeill, of Echo Entertainment, explains: these types of statistics are good news specifically for the tourism industry and obviously have the potential to be good news for the casino business.

More than that, he wants The Star to be a part of the appeal of Sydney as a destination for tourists: we are talking about the absolute iconic symbols of Sydney. I am not suggesting Star is everything on that illustrious list, but that's aspirational for us. We would like Star to be one of those destinations, given the combination of high-end retail and restaurants, the great hotel, a nightclub and entertainment centre and gambling space. A destination like Crown Casino Melbourne, in other words.

The tourism figures arent lying about the state of casinos in Australia: this is a country thats blessed with considerably more than its fair share of top-quality, international-renowned casino resorts. Better yet for the gambler in Australia is the chance to mix a weekend stay or an evenings entertainment in one of Australias excellent casinos with the Australia-facing online casinos that are bringing the very best online pokies and casino games directly into their homes. Best of both worlds, really, and the figures on online casinos and mobile casinos arent lying, either: theyre rising, too...

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Tourism still strong thanks to Australia’s casinos

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