US retailers across the country are busy preparing for the Chinese Lunar New Year that starts on Feb 8, aiming to cash in on what's expected to be an influx of Chinese tourists.

Macy's, whose $400 million renovation in New York's Herald Square was done with Chinese and Brazilian tourists in mind, began its Lunar New Year campaign on Jan 25. It will run through Feb 27 in seven markets across the country.

There will be in-store events, special gifts with purchases and items that have Year of the Monkey iconography.

The department store has held Lunar New Year celebrations for several years but has only begun putting "robust" effort into the event in the last two years, according to Dineen Garcia, vice-president of diversity strategies at Macy's.

"It really is a celebration for our Chinese and our Korean customers - this is an important day for them and we want to recognize them and celebrate it," she told China Daily. "Certainly we also have a lot of tourists who come from China and Korea, and certainly for them Macy's is a stop during their visit, especially in our major cities in California and New York. These are major markets for us within our customer base."

Macy's will have in-store events in Washington, New York and California, the latter two states receive the most Chinese tourists every year.

Bloomingdale's, which is owned by Macy's, also has Lunar New Year decorations, and worked with vendor partners to roll out products. The upscale department store began celebrating Lunar New Year in 2013, according to Jerry Wu, operating vice-president of integrated marketing and international programs.

"It is part of the Bloomingdale's DNA to pay tribute to a variety of cultures and causes throughout the year. Asian customers, including both tourists and Asian Americans, are a huge part of the overall Bloomingdale's business," he said.

"It is important to us to celebrate this special holiday and show our respect and appreciation for Asian culture with unique merchandise, events and in-store animation," he added.

Early estimates from the New York City tourism bureau show the number of Chinese tourists visiting New York increased by 14 percent to roughly 852,000 from 740,000 in 2014. Los Angeles, which receives the most Chinese tourists in California, had 570,000 in 2014.

About 2.2 million Chinese visited the US in 2014, and that number is expected to have increased in 2015 due to the extension of travel visas.

With the influx of Chinese travelers, who spend an average of $6,000 per visit to the US, brands are paying more attention to Lunar New Year, according to Sage Brennan, co-founder of China Luxury Advisors, a consultancy that works with brands on their China strategy.

"From our perspective, we're seeing brands getting smarter - not necessarily bigger and bolder and broader and over the top - but in past years we've seen some really intense, crazy displays in Las Vegas, for example," Brennan said.

"I think they tend to get a little subtler over time and try to stay closer to the brand, so-to-speak, rather than just wrap the whole store in red or whatever. Some of the gestures tend to be too much sometimes, so people are getting smarter about that," he added.

Beverly Center in Los Angeles, one of China Luxury Advisors' clients, has long been courting Chinese shoppers, whether the Chinese international students who study at any of the numerous colleges in California, or travelers from abroad. For them, promotions held during Lunar New Year are "probably some of the biggest promotions we do the entire year," said Susan Vance, Beverly Center's marketing and sponsorship director.

"Lunar New Year has kind of become this great celebration after the Christmas holiday. It's interesting because you see it everywhere now-people who are not familiar with any of the Asian cultures now celebrate it as well," she said.

The upscale Los Angeles mall celebrated the Year of the Sheep last year with appearances by Chinese-American basketball star Jeremy Lin, and this year will feature an appearance by Chinese-American actor Harry Shum Jr, who is one of the stars in the upcoming Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny movie to be released on Netflix.

amyhe@chinadailyusa.com