Queensland's Tourism Highlights Promoted To World A $12 million, three-year deal to promote Queensland's tourism highlights has been announced in Brisbane by Qantas and the Queensland government. Part of the deal is an expanded role for social media to promote Queensland, with Qantas previously working extensively in outdoor and television marketing. Most of the tourism expenditure will be overseas including in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, United States and parts of Europe. Queensland attracts 20.6 per cent of Australia's international tourists, although there has been a slight decline in the money that is spent by international tourists in the state. The $12 million is significantly less than the $30 million deal signed between the New South Wales government and Qantas on April 22, although NSW is a larger tourism market. At Thursday's launch at the Brisbane International Airport, state Tourism Minister Jann Stuckey described it as the largest airline partnership in the Queensland's history. The cost will be evenly split between the state government and the airline. "The new three-year agreement more than doubled the value of current joint marketing activities undertaken by Qantas and Tourism and Events Queensland," Ms Stuckey said in a statement. This is a milestone marketing agreement and the largest tourism and events airline partnership in the state's history. Under the partnership, Queensland's tourism highlights will be pitched to the world as one of Australia's main holiday destinations. The state's beaches and outback will be promoted to Queensland's key tourism markets overseas. Qantas is the largest international and domestic carrier in Queensland. The latest statistic show the number of international tourists to Queensland increasing by 7 per cent from 2011 to 2012. Tourism contributed $17.5 billion to the Queensland economy in 2010-11 and tourism is now regarded as Queensland's second largest export earner.