The last decade has seen a dramatic rise of Chinese involvement in Australia. A massive influx of capital, consumers and culture has changed the landscape of Australian cities in ways that would have been hard to imagine. Nearly a quarter of all tourists to Australia this year came from China, and Tourism Australia estimates that almost half of all tourists will be Chinese by 2020. Outside of tourism, the Chinese influence can be felt in urban real estate, where upwards of 15 billion dollars a year has been spent by the burgeoning new Chinese middle class.

As China is waking up to the world outside its borders, Australia has become one of the biggest and most desirable destinations.

So how did this come about? What placed Australia on the map, and will it last? This is the story of how food safety scandals, an increasing demand for overseas education, mistrust in the Chinese government and improved standard of living have created the perfect storm of Chinese influence in Australia.

You may have already heard of the 2008 Chinese Milk Scandal that resulted in over 50,000 hospitalized babies and six dead from kidney stones and other damage to the kidneys from melamine poisoning. A few years earlier, another 13 babies had died from watered down milk products that left the babies malnourished.

Scandals like these rock China with an alarming frequency, but the sky-rocketing internet connectivity and social media activity of the Chinese population made these scandals leave a lasting impression on the public. Two people were sentenced to death for their involvement in the 2008 Chinese Milk Scandal, and another handful received severe prison sentences, but little could be done to repair the damaged trust.

"Chinese consumers are no longer clamoring for products made in the USA - but rather, products not made in China."

In this climate of informed netizens with more disposable income than ever before, many Chinese consumers have started looking to foreign products for their perceived safety, quality and prestige. In the days of the Cold War, the Western imagination was rife with the demand for American blue jeans and rock music, and the concept of soft power entered our conversations after the fall of the wall. Today, unlike the post-Soviet counterparts of previous decades, Chinese consumers are no longer clamoring for products made in the USA - but rather, products not made in China.

In this climate, Australia found a sudden boost to their ailing dairy industry, and Australian meat saw an increase as well, fueled both by a mistrust in Chinese food safety and the growing popularity of a Western style diet.

For the first time ever, Australia commanded a great deal of the Chinese population's mindshare. Australia itself became a brand synonymous with everything natural, clean, and authentic. A recent study by Bain shows that Chinese consumers are 1.6 times more likely to associate Australia with health and nutrition than the US, Germany, Japan and South Korea, and 2.5 times more likely to associate Australia with words related to “natural”. As such, Australian products become the natural go-to for a middle-class that are increasingly concerned with safety and health.

At the same time, a massive increase in Chinese students going abroad to study helped the brand of Australia, where education is now the largest export outside of natural resources. Not only that, but wealthy Chinese citizens, spurred on by a mistrust in the Chinese government, started investing heavily abroad to keep their money safe. Cities like Vancouver saw massive immigration from wealthy Chinese families hedging their bets, and Australian cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane quickly found themselves inundated with Chinese investors with a voracious appetite for Australian properties.

Today, Chinese families feed their infants Australian dairy, send their teenagers and young adults to Australian schools, eat Australian beef with Australian wine, and try to stay healthy with Australian supplements - with the unspoken mantra being the desire for the natural, clean, and authentic. At AHG, we've capitalized on this massive demand by launching the Bondi Shack store online, and in our hotels, where we curate a list of premium Australian goods and provide them for easy purchase for our millions of Chinese guests every year.

In China, we notice this with the booming popularity of our Australian hospitality brands. Every year we welcome four million Chinese guests to our 100+ hotels in China, and many of them have never been abroad. Even so, they come to sample Australian cuisine, hospitality and goods in our hotels and Bondi Shack stores. Since most of our hotels in China are located in second and third tier cities, where we are often the first international standard hotel, our hotels represent an opportunity for the Chinese domestic travelers to experience a bit of Australia at home before venturing out into the world. In fact, almost four times as many Chinese people see the Australian flag at our hotels than the number of Chinese people that made it to Australia last year, indicating that demand is going to continue to grow.

"Almost four times as many Chinese people see the Australian flag at our hotels than the number of Chinese people that made it to Australia last year"

We were proud to receive the NSW Export Award for Business Services this year, a testament to our efforts to share Australian hospitality abroad, and as we continue to expand in China and the Asia-Pacific we look forward to increasing awareness and demand for Australia in the decade to come.

Nils Pihl is the interim Director of Communications at the Argyle Hotel Group, an Australian hospitality chain with 119 hotels across the Asia Pacific. He lived in Beijing for seven years prior to moving to Australia.