NEWS
Keeping you up to date with the latest news.
australian tourist growth
Did you know?
Pre-pandemic, Australia welcomed over 1.2 million Chinese visitors annually, who spent an average of $8,000 per visit. Forecasts indicate a further surge in Chinese visitors, potentially surpassing arrivals from other countries in the coming years. This trend reflects both the gradual recovery of the Chinese market compared to others and the promising prospects for Australian tourism, driven by a sizeable population of potential travellers in China, including middle and high-income earners with a strong interest in visiting Australia. By 2028, it is anticipated that Australia will host 1.9 million visitors from China annually, constituting 16% of the total visitor count, or roughly 1 in 6 international visitors to the country.

When combined with Chinese nationals and students residing in Australia, merchants have a compelling incentive to offer the preferred Chinese payment methods: WeChat Pay and Alipay. These digital wallets allow Chinese visitors to pay using their mobile phones in their local currency, while merchants receive the funds in Australian dollars. Oligo makes it easy for merchants of any size to accept digital wallets such as WeChat Pay and Alipay.
Sources: Tourism Research Australia 2023 to 2028, Oligo
popular digital payments
China’s Most Popular Digital Payment Options.
The following chart shows the share of Chinese online payment customers who used various digital payment options over the past 12 months. The data is based on a survey of 2,000 online payment customers from China, conducted between October 2022 and September 2023.
Sources: Statista Consumer Insights, Oligo
- Alipay 92%
- WeChat Pay 85%
- UnionPay 45%
- JDpay 23%
- Applypay 22%
- Tenpay 19%
- Bestpay 14%
- Paypal 11%
Which Australian companies have embraced WeChat?
Below are some of Australia’s biggest businesses that have a WeChat Official Account: