Foreign tourists are travelling to Australia in record numbers, an increase the tourism industry is attributing to savvy marketing by Tourism Australia in Asia.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released yesterday show the number of people travelling to Australia was up 6.9% on the same time last year. While New Zealand continued to be the biggest source of tourism arrivals for Australia, Chinese visitors rose by about 14% in November. China is now Australia's second largest source of foreign tourists, beating the United Kingdom.

The industry's peak body, the Tourism and Transport Forum, attributed the boost in numbers to an increase in flights by Asian airlines and successful marketing campaigns in the region by Tourism Australia.

John Lee, chief executive of the TTF, told there were increases across the board, with the exception being the UK.

Lee says the strength of the tourist numbers coming from China, north Asia and south-east Asia is "heartening".

He attributes much of the growth to Tourism Australia's advertising campaign that was launched in June last year and garnered over 24 million hits on the ad, with 20 million hits in China.

"Someone jokes China is an overnight success but it has taken 10 years to come to fruition."