When booking into their hotels in Cairns on their gambling trips to the casino, some Chinese high rollers insist on staying in lucky rooms.

While management at the upmarket Sofitel Reef Casino are fairly circumspect when it comes to telling stories about their guests, apparently some have favourite rooms they like to stay in as it brings them luck.

And one of their favourites is the Presidential Suite – that’s when John Howard’s not in town.

Apparently when he was prime minister the tropical-style room with views of the river was his favourite place to stay in Cairns, particularly because of ease for security.

The Chinese visitors are the latest group of tourists in large numbers to visit the north Queensland town and its environs.

A few years ago anybody visiting Cairns in north Queensland would have thought it was turning Japanese.

The town - particularly its hotels and tourism ventures and even the close by Great Barrier Reef Green Island - had been virtually taken over by our far northern neighbours, not just as tourists but also as the hosts.

For years most of the tourism operations and hotels were owned by Japanese company Daikyo, including Cairns International Hotel, Great Adventures cruise operations and Green Island Resort.

These days though while the Japanese market is still the region’s strongest market with around 200,000 people visiting annually, it’s the Chinese who are being pursued with a vengeance by local tourism operators as well as the state bodies and even the casinos.

When the Japanese market experienced a decline for reasons such as the value of the yen dropping and problems with airline access, other “growth markets” were identified, including China and India.

At the hinterland township and tourist mecca of Kuranda, Barry Smith, the publican of the Kuranda Hotel, says he now sees more Japanese travelling on their own rather than on tours, while it’s the Chinese tourists in tour groups who “are following the flag up the street”.

The scene started to change around three years ago.

In 2005 after Japan’s economic bubble burst, Daikyo sold the last of its major tourism assets, offloading Green Island Resort and Great Adventures cruise operations to North Queensland-based Quicksilver Cruises, which paid around $45 million for the two businesses.

Because of financial pressure in Japan, the company had also disposed of the Cairns Corporate Tower, its Paradise Palms Golf Course, a 60ha Palm Cove site and the Matson Resort in Cairns, among other assets.

Like most of the Japanese companies investing in North Queensland it had been heavily involved in construction and other property markets.

The Quicksilver Group is owned by Cornes Corporation, a family owned business with international offices in Yokohama and Hong Kong.

The Group employs more than 500 locals in Cairns and Port Douglas.

Megan Bell, Director of Marketing, Quicksilver Group of Companies, said Quicksilver was originally in Port Douglas and started with two boats for the adventure/snorkelling market around 30 years ago.

In 1979 it started the first commercial cruise to Low Isles off the coast of Port Douglas.

With Cairns and Port Douglas-based operations, the Quicksilver Group now has reef cruises to Agincourt Reef, Wavedancer cruises to Low Isles, Great Adventures reef and Green Island cruises, Silver Series adventure dive and snorkelling, Pro Dive Cairns liveaboard trips and dive courses, and the five star Green Island Resort.

The island is a world heritage designated coral cay, 27km east of Cairns, which was virtually closed to non-Japanese during Daikyo’s reign.

In December last year the company was involved in “branding“ four new travel agents shops with the theme Cairns – Australia’s Barrier Reef in Shanghai, as a way to sell Cairns to the Chinese.

This followed similar moves in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

The CaPTA (CaPTA) Group, another one of Cairns’ largest tourism operators, has also appointed two full-time sales representatives based in Shanghai and Beijing.

CaPTA Sales Director Michael Bowmaker said the representation was in recognition of the growing Chinese market.

“Chinese is potentially the largest market in the world,” he said.

“As it’s relatively close and has a similar time zone to Australia, we strongly believe it will be one of the largest markets for Cairns in the future.”