The Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) on Thursday said it sees China as the industry's lustrous pearl.

Data of Tourism Research Australia earlier showed a 19 percent increase in Chinese visitor arrivals in Australia in the year to September.

According to ATEC Managing Director Matt Hingerty, there are markets other than China, like India, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia that are coming back to Australia strongly.

However, he said China is the big contributor to Australia's tourism, partly because of the two way trade in commodities which is driving business traffic but also leisure tourism.

"It's not just the usual packages we're used to but also independent travel which is starting to take off and that's really exciting," ATEC Managing Director Matt Hingerty told Australia Associated Press on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Tourism Queensland's Anthony Hayes agrees there is finally a positive promise on the horizon, after being through a " pretty tough couple of years" for the industry.

"I think the good news is that both from a domestic and international perspective things are starting to pick up," Hayes said.

"It's still a bit patchy but certainly the last six months have been pretty positive and we believe we're heading into what we hope will be a really good 12 months."

CEO of Gold Coast Tourism, Martin Winter said in the medium and longer term, the industry are very very buoyed by the prospect that is coming out of China.

Winter said the state is very confident about the future because it now also got direct flights from Guangzhou, China directly into Brisbane, Australia.

Gold Coast Tourism has recently opened a dedicated office in Shanghai of China.

(Xinhua News Agency December 9, 2010)