The Chinese tourists are now out-spending the Japanese, Australia's New South Wales (NSW) state government adviser on NSW-Asian Business Henry Tsang was quoted Sunday by the Australian Associated Press as saying.

According to tourism statistics of the state, a typical Japanese spends 1,423 Australian dollars (US$ 713) on a visit to the state, while the average Chinese tourist spends 4,400 Australian dollars (About US$ 2,200), almost four times as much as a Japanese.

From June 1999 to June 2000, some 404,800 Japanese tourists visited NSW. In the same year almost 80,500 Chinese visited the state, representing a 32 percentage increase. It is forecast that the number is set to grow by an average of 25 percent each year for the next 10 years.

The New South Wales is the most important state in Australia and about 80 percent of Chinese tourists visited the Darling Harbor and the Sydney Opera House, in the state capital city of Sydney.

It meant China has replaced Japan as Australia's number one overseas tourist resource.

( 07/29/2001)