But they keep coming and splurging anyway. Japanese make up the single largest bloc of visitors to Australia. Some 721,000 of them toured the land of the kangaroo and tried on Crocodile Dundee hats last year. Australia is also reaping a tourist bonanza from other places in Asia. Some 900,000 visitors came from Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea, a third more than in 1993.
Tourism is back as a top Australian money earner.
It was a big change from the early 1990s, when a recession and a domestic airline dispute savaged tourism and the hotel industry. Australia has passed laws that make it easier for foreigners to put money into local tourism. The Singapore Tourism Promotion Board has even come up with package tours under its Tourism Unlimited program. They will focus on joint destinations that offer tourists a mix of ultra-modern, urban Singapore and the vast Australian outdoors. The Japanese pioneered such synergy after their 1980s buying spree of Australian beach hotels and golf courses.