It now appears that the Australian prime minister, Keivn Rudd, has just recently outlined plans to invest more than $30 million in selling Australia as a great tourism destination to Chinese travelers. The goal here is to, of course, trade between the two countries. The Australian government, according to Mr Rudd, will be spending this money over the course of two years.

Mr Rudd said that China is expected to emerge as Australia’s number one source of international visitors over the next few years. Thus, it is important for Australia to prepare for this now and continue to try and draw in more Chinese tourists.

The view of the prime minister is, of course, in line with the expectations of the Asia Luxury Travel Market. Just last week delegates from this group noted that China is a dominant force in the region.

Tourism Australia, as part of these new plans, said that the There’s Nothing Like Australia advertising campaign will be rolled out in China during the early part of August. It makes since that Tourism Australia would roll out this campaign in China if they are attempting to bring in more Chinese tourists.

This announcement does follow a visit by the Chinese vice President, Xi Jinpeng, to Australia just last weekend. During the visit, leaders agreed on some $10 billion worth of trade deals. A lot of this money was largely focused, of course, on resources and energy. Telecommunications and training developments were not discussed at that time. They also did not talk about quarantine protocol for exporting Tasmanian apples to China.