Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Friday that his government is trying every means to attract Chinese tourists to Canada, including the great northern areas.

Harper, who is on a five-day tour of the North, made these remarks in his answer to correspondent's question about potential of tour by the Chinese in Canada's north, especially the high Arctic areas.

He said that his government recently completed the Approved Destination Status (ADS) with the government of China, and the first tourists associated with that agreement have begun to arrive in the country.

"We are also pursuing development of the comprehensive federal tourism strategy," he said. "We are looking for all kinds of ways that we can show to the people of China, and of course, people around the world to this part of our great country."

Harper noted an increasing number of tourists from the coast are coming up to the north, including Yukon Territory, and the government wants to use the situation to tap into the Asian market.

Canadian government and tourism officials hope the ADS will inspire hundreds of thousands of Chinese to visit Canada, a country slightly bigger than China with just 33 million people and vast areas of pristine wilderness.

Canadians hope Chinese tourists to Canada will double from about 200,000 this year to 400,000 in 2015 because of the ADS.

The Canadian Tourism Commission has been seeking an ADS designation from the Chinese government for the past ten years. In 2005, Canada and China came close to reaching an agreement. The final approval came from Beijing last December.

China is Canada's second-largest trading partner, after the United States. Chinese tourism, about 200,000 visitors a year before the ADS agreement, has been rising about 5 percent per year recently. Most of the travelers were students, business people and Chinese citizens with family living in Canada.

Canadians value Chinese tourists. Statistics issued by the office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper show Chinese tourists spend about 1,650 Canadian dollars (about 1,597 U.S. dollars) per visit, and they have the longest average stay in Canada, 28 nights per visit.