Tourism officials from one of Australia's leading tourist destinations, Queensland state, said they recognize the Chinese market as a vital component in the state’s tourism industry plans for the next 10 years.

A flat domestic market, declining number of tourists from Japan, which contributes the second highest number of foreign visitors to Australia and stiff competition in the international market have forced the state to focus on high-yielding overseas markets, including the Middle East and Europe, reported the CourierMail.

"The Chinese market and protecting the Japanese market will be two vital components of the state's tourism industry for the next 10 years," said Queensland Tourism Minister Margaret Keech, outlining the industry's expansion plans.

"We will be focusing on developing the Chinese, Indian and Japanese markets, but China will become our biggest overseas market.

"We want to ensure Queensland gets a big chunk of the Chinese market as more middle class Chinese travel overseas in the coming years," added Keech.

Keech said, basing on the state's experience handling visitors from Japan, the Chinese will choose package tours for their first visit before opting for independent travel as they feel more “at home” with Queensland.

"When they become repeat visitors they will stay longer, including travel to the gold Coast and Australian Outback," she said.

Queensland tourism is planning to develop an interactive online booking system, offering its website visitors a virtual tour of Queensland destinations.

By 2016, the state hopes to see revenue from the tourism industry increase to A$21 billion from the present A$14 billion.

(US$1.00=A$1.33)