China Southern Airlines Co Ltd on Aug 15 announced a new route from Guangzhou to Cairns — its fifth destination in Australia — and signed a contract worth A$9 million ($9.42 million) to cooperate on marketing with Tourism Australia.

The airline will run three weekly flights on the route from December.

China Southern Airlines is the leading carrier on the China-Australia route. It transported 22 percent of all Chinese tourists into Australia last year. In about two years, the airline has nearly quadrupled capacity to Australia, opening up direct access between China and Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth.

Andrew McEvoy, managing director of Tourism Australia, said the increasing aviation capacity between China and Australia was critical to enable the Australian tourism industry to further benefit from the fast growing Asian markets.

The cooperation deal also moved the Australian tourism industry closer to its 2020 goal of doubling overnight tourism to up to A$140 billion annually by the end of the decade.

Besides cooperating with China Southern Airlines, Tourism Australia is working on other projects in China, like attracting more Chinese living in second-tier cities. A new Chinese website offering information about traveling in Australia will also be launched.