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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (19 February) . . Page.. 121 ..

MR HIRD: I wish to direct a question to Mr Kaine in his capacity as Minister for Tourism. Following the Chief Minister's recent successful trade mission to China, is the Minister in a position to say what the Government proposes to do to increase tourism opportunities from that part of Asia?

MR KAINE: Unfortunately, I did not go to China with the Chief Minister; but I do know that while she was in China she had discussions with Chinese officials, among other things on the question of tourism. That is one of the reasons why some of the officials were included in the party that went to Beijing with the Chief Minister. I understand that, as a result of those discussions, there has been agreement that we will exchange with Beijing promotional material. There is a Canberra promotional video, which the Beijing tourism people intend to use to promote Canberra there. I understand that there has been a proposal for an exchange of tourism staff between the two cities. That has not been agreed upon yet, but investigations are proceeding to determine whether we can arrange such an exchange.

Also, promotional information on such institutions as the Australian International Hotel School and the Canberra Institute of Technology's School of Tourism and Hospitality is being forwarded to the Chinese Department of Education to see whether we can get some exchange of people through the education system. It would be of great value to us if we could encourage Chinese students to come to those institutions. Apart from being students, they also bring money into our community. I think it is important to note that many of the leading five-star hotels in China are state owned. Of course, they have a great desire, as we do, to attract people to go and stay there. So, there are indications that a number of initiatives are flowing from the Chief Minister's visit to China. I think that we can only benefit from that. Of course, China is not the only potential source of tourists in the Asian region. I think that, at one meeting that I had after the Chief Minister came back, there was some comment about the size of the rising middle class in China and the number of people who are now economically able to undertake travel overseas and the fact that there is some encouragement on the part of the Chinese Government for them to do so.

But, of course, the same thing is happening in other parts of Asia - in India, for example. It may be of interest to people to know that there are more millionaires in India today than there are people in Australia. The Indian economy, obviously, is booming. There are people in this city who come from that Asian subcontinent, and I am sure that a lot of their relatives and friends would like to visit Canberra. They are now developing the capacity to do so. I would expect to see an increasing number of tourists coming from that part of Asia as well as from China. I think that we all recognise the potential that China offers as a source of business for Canberra, particularly as a source of tourism. So much has been done as a result of the Chief Minister's visit. I expect to see over the next few years an increasing number of Chinese people coming to Canberra. Conversely, I hope to see a lot of Australians - Canberrans in particular - visiting China. I think it would be a mutually beneficial experience.

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