It was “hypocritical” to treat them differently to American tourists, he said.Chinese tourists - many of whom make a beeline for Mr Packer’s Crown resorts and casinos - could create tens of thousands of new jobs in Australian tourism.
“Why should the visa -requirements for a wealthy Chinese visitor wanting to come to Australia be any harder than the visa requirements for a wealthy American?” he asked in an exclusive interview with the Herald Sun in Macau.
“We’re not in a Cold War anymore. The dollar’s at 91 cents because of China, not America, and we all benefit, so let’s not be hypocrites.“The visa processing system for Chinese tourists has improved recently, but there is more work to do in this area and each day we waste costs Australia a great amount of tourism dollars,’’ he said.
“Visa applications are done in English, not Mandarin, that’s stupid. And they are not done online, that’s stupid.“I think over 70 countries can apply for an Australian tourist visa online but China isn’t one of them.”
Mr Packer, whose estimated $7.3 billion fortune has seen him ranked the 211th richest person in the world by Forbes magazine, has built a sizeable portion of his wealth through attracting wealthy Chinese gamblers and tourists.
About $1 billion of Crown’s $2.8 billion revenue in Australia last financial year came from overseas visitors — the vast majority from China.Mr Packer will next week join Prime Minister Tony -Abbott on a trade mission to Japan and China.He said the rise of the Chinese middle class was hugely important to the Australian economy.
The 46-year-old inherited a gaming and media business from his father Kerry, who died in 2005, and has spent 10 years consolidating it into a gaming behemoth.
没有评论:
发表评论