Sydney witnesses Year of Sheep

Chinese tourists dominate traveler numbers in Australia's biggest city of Sydney and even more have descended to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

The Year of the Sheep dawned on Thursday and was met with thousands of people enjoying Chinese New Year events which will take place throughout the city for the next week and more.

As city streets thundered with Lion Dance performers all through Thursday, Sydney's major CBD hotels are up to 97 percent capacity for guests during the celebrations. That's up from 80 percent last year, setting a new Lunar Year record.

Hotels across the wider-metropolitan area, which includes several clusters of Chinese and Vietnamese communities, are up to 90 percent capacity for accommodation rooms.

Sydney and its more than 100 different multi-cultural communities have embraced what is locally called Chinese New Year over the past 20 years.

Celebratory flags flutter on hundreds poles and television advertising campaigns have been created specifically for the New Year.

One nation-wide electronic chain is offering "red envelope" specials, while revered national department store chain David Jones is advertising New Year specials, including in-store dumpling stalls, in the country's major newspapers.

Destination New South Wales CEO Sandra Chipsake told Xinhua that Chinese New Year, and the large population of people from China who populate Sydney and the rest of Australia, are part of the nation's fabric.

"China is our Number one inbound market to New South Wales," she said.

"It's Number one for visitors, the Number one for visitor nights and the Number one for expenditure. So in the year ended September last year, we had 440,000 visitors from China (Sydney alone) and that was an 8.6 percent increase. They stayed over 12 million nights, that was a 4-percent increase." Endi