SYDNEY, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Australian city of Brisbane will now be directly reachable from Beijing, with new direct flights from China's capital announced on Monday by the government of the state of Queensland, together with Air China.
The service, which will operate four times a week, is expected to add a further 191 million Australian (153.14 U.S. million) dollars to the state's economy, along with bringing over 170,000 Chinese visitors to Australia over the next four years.
"Securing flights from China's capital city for the first time is a big coup for Queensland, opening up new opportunities to tap into this valuable market," Premier of Queensland Annastacia Palaszczuk said on Monday.
"We know the best way to grow tourism in Queensland is to secure more direct international flights."
With 2017 being the China-Australia Year of Tourism, and with Chinese tourist numbers exceeding those of any other nation for the past few months in Australia, Australian Trade Minister Steven Ciobo said in a statement obtained by Xinhua on Monday that this would only further deepen the relationship between the two nations.
"China remains Australia's most valuable tourism market with visitors spending almost 10 billion Australian dollars (8.02 billion U.S. dollars ) across Australian in the last year," Ciobo said.
"With the potential to be worth up to 13 billion Australian dollars (10.42 billion U.S. dollars) by the year 2020, it is crucial that Australia continues to strengthen its ties with China to help realise the full potential of this market."
According to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the amount of Chinese visitors to Australia increased by 18 percent in July this year compared to the corresponding period last year.
