Chinese students visiting a museum. Source: english.people.cn
Lynda Kelly, Attracting Chinese Tertiary Students to Museums: What does the Research (and students themselves) say? Museums and the Digital, 25 August 2016
In 2015 China was Australia’s second largest inbound market, with 60% of these in New South Wales. The number of Chinese International Tertiary Students (CITS) attending university in Australia sits at around 34% of the total international student population. In 2015 there was an increase of 34,000 CITS in New South Wales, making it the state with the most enrolments in Australia (39%), growing by 17% from 2011.
The Australian National Maritime Museum is located in the heart of Darling Harbour, Sydney. While visitation is mainly from Australian-based audiences there are a significant number of tourists visiting the museum, with the Chinese market one of the strongest and fastest growing. The museum has a “China-ready” strategy in progress which includes:
- developing educational programs specifically for Chinese school students visiting Australia
- having key texts in most exhibitions and significant signage around the museum translated to simplified Chinese
- Action Stations website available in Chinese
- targeted campaigns aimed at tour operators to increase the numbers of Chinese-speaking visitors to the museum
- research with Chinese audiences and operators
- converting a marketing role to a tourism/marketing role
