Australia's federal, state and territory tourism ministers has come together in Canberra on Friday for further enhancing their cooperative efforts to support, strengthen and promote the all-important Australian tourism industry.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the meeting was chaired by the Federal Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb,who is the cabinet minister responsible for tourism of the Abbott government.

Tourism is Australia's largest services export, with international visitor consumption of 26 billion AU dollars (almost 24.54 million U.S. dollars) representing over 8 percent of total Australian exports.

Andrew Robb said that working with tourism ministers from around the country on implementing a national tourism reform agenda was essential to these efforts.

And he confirmed that tourism is an increasingly important sector for the Australian economy. "I welcome this early opportunity to meet with my state and territory counterparts to lay out the new Australian government's vision for tourism," he indicated in a statement.

He said the Australian government will place particular emphasis on encouraging Australian tourism to compete at "the high- value, high-quality end of the global tourism market".

"To this end, the principal focus will be on the promotion and pursuit of international tourism opportunities and this is reflected by the decision to locate tourism within the Foreign Affairs and Trade portfolio," Robb added.

And he also said the Australian government will help further enhance the important relationship between Tourism Australia and Austrade in driving economic diplomacy and capitalizing on new opportunities and growing markets abroad.

"Tourism is a critical component of my focus to increase export income, attract more international investment, create more jobs and strengthen Australia's prosperity. Tourism operates in a global marketplace and we are determined to demonstrate to the world that we are very much open for business," he said. Endi

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