The Cairns Airport Adventure Festival has already eclipsed last year's participation numbers over the 10-day event calendar.

Minister for Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games, Jann Stuckey announced on the weekend that the Coral Coast 5150 Triathlon, Cairns Airport Ironman Cairns race and the URBAN Hotel Group Ironman 70.3 Cairns have reached capacity - and numbers for other events are still rising.

"The 2012 Cairns Airport Adventure Festival has received an outstanding response from across Australia and the world, with 2,500 athletes from 32 countries competing across the three triathlon events," said Ms Stuckey.

"This is a huge increase of more than 600 from last year's 1,900 participants - and with other events in the 2012 Festival still taking entries, participation numbers are still increasing.

"Last year's event delivered an economic boost of more than $7.5 million to Queensland - more than double expectations, and this year's event is set to be even bigger and better which is great news for the local tourism industry."

Athletes are travelling to the region from as far away as Greenland, the Netherlands and Hong Kong, while Australian athletes Chris McCormack and Rebekah Keat will be returning to defend their Cairns Airport Ironman Cairns titles.

"The quality of this year's field is a great example of how the 2012 Cairns Ironman event is putting an international spotlight on Queensland, and helping to showcase Tropical North Queensland as a leading tourism destination," said Ms Stuckey.

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