Unreliable Wi-Fi services across Australia's Gold Coast are damaging the visitor experience for Chinese tourists, the local media reported on Tuesday.
Tourism Australia's China country manager Andy Jiang told the Gold Coast Bulletin first-class Wi-Fi was very important for Chinese tourists.
"Chinese are extremely social and they see coming to a foreign destination like Australia as a way of showcasing," Jiang said.
"They like to post online straightaway. Chinese consumers don't have the patience to wait and do it later."
He noted Wi-Fi quality on the Gold Coast was not bad but visitors often had to pay extra. As they were already paying for a hotel room, they felt they should be entitled to it free.
"That is really striking a dissonance in their mind," Jiang said.
Gold Coast Tourism chief executive Martin Winter said free Wi-Fi in visitor hubs and transport corridors was critical and something commonplace worldwide.
In 2015, more than 1 million Chinese tourists visited Australia and spent in excess of 8 billion Australian dollars (5.88 billion U.S. dollars), according to official statistics from Tourism Australia.
A significant number of 242,000 Chinese visited the Gold Coast last year.
