Some 285,000 Chinese travelers visited Australia last year, up 13 percent compared with the previous year, according to Monday's press release from Australia Tourist Commission (ATC).

Chinese visitors played an important role in Australian tourism. As nationwide qualified travel agencies were allowed to organize tourist groups, the number of Chinese visitors will continued to increase. By 2014, some 1.13 million Chinese visitors are expected to visit Australia. China will become Asia's biggest tourism nation, said Johnny Nee, general manager of northeast Asia of ATC.

He said ATC will train more tourism experts in order to provide quality service for travelers and increase visitors' satisfaction rate.

Some 5.5 million overseas travelers visited Australia last year, according to the release.

(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2006)