JAPANESE tour wholesalers have told Tourism Minister Desley Boyle they can not understand Qantas drastically cutting flights to Cairns.

They have confirmed that they too are looking for other airlines to carry the "tens of thousands of passengers" they say want to come to Cairns.

Speaking from Japan where she has held meetings with Japan’s leading travel agents to discuss Qantas Queensland flight cuts and to talk to airlines, Ms Boyle said all of the major wholesalers were dismayed at Qantas and Jetstar because they have tens of thousands of travellers wanting to come to Cairns.

"Japan’s travel industry leaders have informed me that they are looking for other parties who will pick up the slack and fly to Queensland," Ms Boyle said.

"Nobody can fully understand why flights have been drastically reduced into Cairns and the travel agents confirmed to me that Cairns will continue to be one of the key Australian destinations."

The queues of visitors wanting to come to Cairns from Osaka and Nagoya confirmed the "good work done by many Cairns operators over the years".

"I held a workshop today with all of the key travel agents including HIS, JTB and Jalpak to develop solutions," Ms Boyle said.

"The key outcomes from that meeting were that we will focus on luring alternative international airlines and routes and we will also focus on increasing domestic connections particularly between Cairns, Gold Coast, Uluru and Sydney."

Ms Boyle, Tourism Queensland and Tourism Australia officials are armed with the State and Federal governments’ $8 million in incentives and advertising expenditure in a bid to keep the Asian tourism trade alive.

Ms Boyle also got a first-hand look while in Tokyo of the latest advertising campaign to encourage Japanese women to visit Far North Queensland.

The quirky marketing initiative involves advertisements hanging from the ceiling of trains on the massive Tokyo subway system.

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