Cairns along with its tropical north Queensland neighbours are expecting to welcome up to 20,000 Chinese tourists this week who will be visiting the region to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Booking out restaurants and hotels to kick start the year of the Dragon, the local Government has predicted that the celebrating visitors will spend up to $2,000 per person during their entire stay, Couriermail reported.

As well as organising their own party-plans, Cairns also held a Chinese New Year Festival for Chinese tourists yesterday while Brisbane’s Chinatown hosted the 2012 Valley Chinese New Year Festival which features 50 performances, 24 stalls as well as lion dancers and firecrackers.

With the majority flying in on the extra 12 chartered flights from china to Cairns and one from Brisbane, Tourism North Queensland chief executive Rob Gaison said those flying in on Chartered services are likely to spend more.

He explained that for the year ending September last year, Queensland had welcomed 17 percent more Chinese tourists than the prior twelve months and expects arrivals to grow to 429,000 by 2016.