Western Australia pulls out 'big guns'in Aussie battle for Chinese visitor (3)

Dr Hames has made it plain that he wants to increase WA's share of Chinese who come to Australia -- currently it is only 4.5 percent.

According to the International overnight visitor results from Tourism Research Australia's latest International Visitor Survey, released in June, the number of business visitors to WA in the year ending March 2011 rose by 23.3 percent, with holiday visits up by 2.3 percent and visits for the purpose of education increasing 2.5 percent.

Business visitors currently make up 16.4 percent of all international visitors -- hardly surprising considering WA's extraordinary economic magnetism, particularly for China.

The WA economy can rightly claim to be the world's leading mining economy.Significant shares of world production include 21 percent of iron ore, 14 percent of alumina, 13 percent of nickel, 7 percent of liquefied natural gas and 6 percent of gold.

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