Objectives To manage commercial activities at national parks under a concession regime is an effective approach worldwide to ensure minimal environmental impact and high-quality tourism services. This paper threw light on the enhancement of China’s national park concession regime, using Australia as a case study due to its long national park development history and relatively comprehensive national park concession regime. Since the establishment of the world’s second national park in 1879, the role of Australia’s national parks have been shifted from being leisure and entertainment venues for urban residents to national reserves with a focus on the protection of natural and cultural resources and the combined functions for entertainment and tourism. The Australian government, at different levels, adopted a concession regime to manage commercial activities at national parks.

Methods The paper utilised literature research method to gather information on the background and implementation of Australian national park concession regime. It then employed a text analysis method to sort out and analyze relevant legislation and policy documents. At last, the paper compared national park concession regimes in Australia and China, identifying their similarities and differences, and explored their implications for China.

Results Based on the analysis on the elements of the legal relationship for national park concession, the paper explored closely into Australia’s national park concession regime at the federal level as well as state and territory level, analyzed it from such aspects as a management system, planning, authorization, and supervision, and made comments on its advantages and disadvantages.

Conclusions With implications from Australia’s experience, the paper recommended that China should improve the definition of the scope of concession business, allow strictly managed commercial guided tours in the core protection zone, create a more detailed plan for the general protection zone, specify the qualifications and training requirements for concessionaires, and explore additional authorization approaches such as application, direct authorization and expressions of interest.