About 20 new itineraries to attract Chinese visitors to Western Australia have been developed as part of a co-operative marketing campaign between Tourism Western Australia, China Southern Airlines and Tourism Australia. Tourism Minister Kim Hames said the itineraries were part of a broader $4million partnership marketing agreement between the three organisations and aimed to increase Chinese visitors to WA.

“China is a very important tourism market to WA, with Chinese visitation growing 43.3 per cent to 27,800 visitors for the year ending June 2012,” Dr Hames said.

“Five leading agencies from key Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen; and one national partner, were selected to develop the itineraries which will be promoted via print media, online and retail outlets.

“These tailored consumer packages will feature extraordinary tourism experiences and products across WA to suit independent as well as group travellers.  Some of these experiences include self-drive tours, golfing and wine tasting.”

The State Government, through Tourism WA, has also launched Our Direction in China 2012-2015, to identify opportunities for the State to increase its share of Chinese visitors to 100,000 by 2020.

“The strategy will play a key role in increasing WA’s market share with a focus on consumer marketing, trade, aviation and industry development,” the Minister said.

“The strategy will be implemented by Tourism WA in collaboration with key stakeholders during the next three years to help reach our goal for 2020.”