BRISBANE - Australia's Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told State Parliament on Wednesday that "Nothing beats Queensland" is the new slogan of a campaign to boost the state's struggling tourism industry following a summer of floods and cyclones.

Bligh said a 10 million AU dollars ($10.07 million) marketing campaign to attract visitors back to the sunshine state would be one of the biggest Australia has ever seen.

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"The campaign will harness the unbeatable Queensland spirit," she said.

"Just as these disasters have not beaten us ... we aim to tell the world that nothing beats Queensland, nothing beats our beaches, nothing beats our rain-forest, nothing beats our Great Barrier Reef and nothing beats a Queensland holiday."

The announcement comes as new figures from Tourism Research Australia showed more visitors came to the state in 2010, but spent less.

December's quarterly results in the International Visitor Survey showed 1.4 million foreign holidaymakers came to Queensland in 2010, which was the first annual increase in three years.

China has become the state's fast growing international market, as Chinese travelers increased by 23 percent year on year in 2010. But visitors from key European markets declined.

"There's no doubt that the lingering effects of the global financial crisis, coupled with the strength of the Australian dollar, have had an impact on our international market," Queensland Tourism Minister Jan Jarratt told the parliament.

"This is reflected in the fact that while international travelers spent an extra 725,000 nights in Queensland, their overall spending decreased by three percent," according to Jan Jarratt.