By Paul Smeaton and Amy Kelly

Queensland tourism operators have recruited a Chinese pop duo to star in their latest campaign in a bid to boost visitor numbers to the flood-ravaged state.

Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung, or the Twins as they are known across much of Asia, will star in the celebrity campaign designed to target the Chinese tourism market.

Tourism Tropical North Queensland and local tourism operators have joined forces to bring the Twins to the state where they have been filmed n music videos and photos at various tourist destinations.

Vicki Tung from Tropical Tourism North Queensland says the Twins’ fan base is exactly the right target market for tourism.

“Celebrity is always very influential,” she said.

“We’re very lucky that we can invite Twins to come over here to help us sell our destinations to China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.”

Daniel Gschwind, chief executive of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council, says after a challenging year the industry needs to move forward.

“We obviously have taken a real hammering over the last three or four months from various impacts of disasters and other issues that we need to deal with,” he said.

“Word of mouth works, and when word of mouth comes from a celebrity in the source market than it obviously carries a lot more credibility.”

He expects the campaign to be highly successful and says at this stage Queensland needs all the help it can get.