Selling Australia as a tourist destination is not exactly difficult, the stunning golden beaches, pristine coral reefs and world renowned architecture of Sydney's iconic landmarks (not to mention the koalas!), make the land down under a place any traveller would want to visit.

 

But a new international visitor survey, released by Tourism Australia on Wednesday, has revealed that rural Australia, far from Sydney Harbour, the Great Barrier Reef or Melbourne's famous cafes, is also enjoying record numbers of travellers thanks to a surge in Chinese sightseers.

 

Overall visitors from China to Australia increased by 12 percent to 1.1 million, from the year to March, spending 9 percent more and bringing 9.7 billion Australian dollars (7.3 billion U.S. dollars) to the economy.

 

New South Wales State (NSW) Minister for Tourism, Adam Marshall, said that "China continues to lead NSW's tourism growth."

 

"For the first time, the number of visitors from China exceeded 700,000 for the year and they spent almost three billion Australian dollars (2.3 billion U.S. dollars) while here."

 

"These remarkable results are underpinned by our strategic marketing and industry partnerships, combined with our hosting of major world-class events, such as Vivid Sydney, which are delivering record results for NSW."

 

In the State of Queensland, "the latest data shows Chinese visitors increased 6.7 per cent to 472,000 over the past 12 months, and they injected $1 billion into our economy," Queensland State Tourism Minister Kate Jones said.

 

"China remains our largest international market in terms of overnight visitor expenditure."

 

"We know Chinese visitors love Queensland and the good news is they're continuing to spend up big while they're here."

 

The increase of travelers has been no accident; earlier in the year, leaders of both countries launched the the China-Australia Year of Tourism, in order to "bring our countries closer together and provide more opportunities for further engagement at every level - economic, commercial, social, and academic," Australian Trade Minister Steven Ciobo said at the launch.

 

Of course as a result of this, Australia's curiosity about the mysterious land of China has also risen dramatically and is tipped to increase even further following a campaign by the Chinese National Tourist Office.

 

In April, a fleet of "panda vans," were launched, aimed at engaging Australians, in hundreds of towns across the country, to visit China. The joint campaign seems to prove that panda bears and koala bears, have a great deal of fascination and respect for one and other. So much so, the animals are set to meet for the first time when the panda van tour reaches Adelaide Zoo, next month.