Awaiting China impact
Direct flights start misses tourism figures
THE flights Cairns through numbers.
The latest International Visitor Survey results for the full year to the end of December show a fall in overall overseas tourists, down from 901,000 in 2016 to 897,000, but international holidaymakers grew marginally by 2000 to 839,000.
Overall Chinese numbers to full impact of direct between China and have yet to flow to official tourism Queensland hit new heights, with more than half a million visitors to the Sunshine State last year, but figures for the Far North were not available last night.
The 503,000 Chinese who visited Queensland in the year to December was a record for any single nationality, eclipsing even the heady days of the Japanese obsession with the state in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
Queensland Tourism Minister Kate Jones said she expected Chinese numbers to continue to grow in the state and the Far North.
“In the next two years we expect this international market to spike as locals start to experience the benefit of more direct flights from key Asian markets,” she said.
“This includes Hainan Airlines’ service from Shenzhen, which only started in December, as well as China Southern (Guangzhou to Cairns).
“International visitors spent $1.1 billion in Cairns last year (about the same as 2016) and we’re committed to building on that figure in years to come.
“That’s why we’re working so hard to attract more direct flights and cruise ships to Cairns.”
The 2.7 million travellers who stayed overnight in Queensland last year injected $5.3 billion into the economy. Figures for other states will also be released today.
Ms Jones said the results were great news for Queensland’s $25 billion tourism industry.
“We’ve done a lot of work to attract more direct flights to Queensland but the job’s not over,” she said. “The international tourism market has never been so competitive and it’s important we keep rising to the challenge by improving our tourism offering.”
Federal Tourism Minister Steve Ciobo said China continued to play a crucial role in Australia’s and Queensland’s tourism success. Japan was once our biggest tourism market, with the former record of 431,000 visitors in 2005.
Chinese visitor Yiran Chi said she chose Brisbane as a destination because there were more direct flights from China and the accommodation was cheaper than Sydney and Melbourne.
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