A meeting held in Brisbane last Wednesday between a Tourism Tropical North Queensland delegate group which included Mayor Val Schier, and China Southern Airlines seems to have born fruit.

The group met with the President of China Southern Airlines, Tan Wangeng, who announced the carrier's expansion plans which included flights to four new destinations; Auckland, Perth, Adelaide, and Cairns.

Cr Schier said there is still work to be done to ensure the best deal possible for our region. "We'll be pushing hard for Cairns to be the first of the new destinations."

The expansion plans are set to be implemented over the next five years, but Cr Schier hopes China Southern will be flying passengers into Cairns much sooner.

The airline commenced flights between Guangzhou and Brisbane last week.

Assistant tourism minister Nick Sherry told Travel Today that the plans would be a huge boost to the industry.

“The plans outlined to me by Mr Tan and his senior management team show a deep commitment to the future of the China-Australian air link,” he said.

“The number of visitors from China is expected to more than double over this decade to around 800,000 a year.”