Far north Queensland will be home to a 'world class' aquarium expected to attract more than 500,000 visitors a year with developers starting on the design stage this week.

The $50 million Cairns aquarium is slated to open in 2016 and aims to give tourists the opportunity to experience marine life endemic to the region. 

Cairns Aquarium CEO Daniel Leipnik said the idea occurred to him and director Andrew Preston on a trip to Green Island several years ago. 

"Within about an hour or two of getting there I realised there were a lot tourists that weren't scuba diving," Mr Leipnik said. 

"So we had a real 'a-ha' moment. It was so visually apparent that you had a large demographic of people who were coming to the region but weren't getting to experience the Great Barrier Reef."

The project will have a flow-on effect for tourism operators further north in the Douglas and Daintree areas, Mr Leipnik said, and will keep the burgeoning Chinese market in far north Queensland for longer.

"Aquariums around the world attract people to cities," he said. 

"Cities that have more attractions give visitors more reasons to go to those cities. 

"Chinese visitors are only spending on average around 1.7 days in Cairns and from what I'm told they'll come here, see the reef, do something else and then leave. 

"So we need to do more to keep people here. People may be considering the Gold Coast or heading to Alice Springs. This gives them one more reason to come here now." 

Mr Leipnik said the aquarium's directors had conducted 'extensive' market research and analysis of the tourism industry, including two independent economic feasibility studies completed by the Australian Institute for Commercialisation.

The aquarium received design and development approval from Cairns Regional Council earlier this week and the company's directors will seek a building permit from council once this stage is complete. 

"What that means is that based on what our architects and engineers have put together ... the council has approved that building to be built on that site," Mr Leipnik said. 

"That enables us to now conclude financing and progress the project."

The project is expected to create around 250 full-time jobs with construction lasting just over two years.

The aquarium will be located in the Cairns central business district at the corner of Lake, Florence and Abbott Street. 

Mr Leipnik said the design stage will cost $1.1 million and draw on more than 100 full-time staff from 15 companies specialising in engineering, building and aquatic services.

- Sam Davis