GOOD TIMES ROLL
Sydney routes are tourism sector’s flight paths to recovery
THE Far North’s tourism industry is springing back into life as 10 more direct flights jet into Cairns this weekend from Sydney.
The services follow the arrival of the first of five Qantas and Jetstar aircraft from Australia’s biggest city yesterday amid celebrations at the airport.
They are the first interstate flights in 15 weeks as the industry claws back about $1 billion losses in revenue due to the impact of COVID-19.
Tourism Tropical North Queensland chief executive Mark Olsen estimates that the Sydney services will inject $250 million into the economy in the next month.
THE Far North’s mission to salvage as much as possible from a forecast $2.2 billion loss in visitor spending by December has started with five planeloads of interstate visitors arriving in Cairns for the first time in 15 weeks.
More than 300 passengers from two Sydney flights arrived within the first hour of Queensland opening its border on Friday.
Water cannons saluted the first jet, which touched down at 12.08pm, and passengers emerged in the arrivals hall through a welcome arch of rainforest plants and tropical flowers.
Indigenous performers, animal mascots, a koala and a Kombi van added to the festivities as visitors collected their bags and set off to explore the Reef, rainforest and Outback of the Cairns and Great Barrier Reef region.
With five flights from Sydney scheduled for Saturday and Sunday and three to five a day in the next two weeks, Tourism Tropical North Queensland CEO Mark Olsen said interstate visitors would spend about $250 million in the next month to combat the $1 billion lost from the pandemic.
“We hope interstate visitors wanting to feel temperatures above 20 degrees will fly into
Cairns to explore the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s oldest rainforest and the accessible outback,” he said.
“In the 12 months before our borders closed, we had 332,000 visitors from NSW, which was a 24.7 per cent increase from the previous 12 months, showing that interest in the Cairns and Great Barrier Reef region is high.”
Cairns Airport chief Norris Carter said it “feels like Christmas here today” after already seeing a tenfold increase in domestic passengers passing through the airport this week to 20,000.
“Today is an important day for our industry’s recovery. Every traveller is important not only to the airlines that fly them here, but to all the businesses across the airport and the wider tourism community,” he said.
Penrith man Justin Cooper made the trek during his university break to visit his parents, who moved to Cairns from Sydney only 18 months ago.
The 18-year-old said it “felt good to be here”.
“It’s really exciting to see everything on display and being celebrated here today,” he said.
“It’s important that the border is reopened and really great to see my parents.”
His father, Glenn Cooper, said interstate travellers coming to the region again was “a big thing”.
“We haven’t seen him (Justin) for a while now, it’s been a long time,” he said.
“You can only use Zoom for a certain amount of time. It’s not the same. It’s great to have him up here, it’s his second home during the winter.”
Mr Cooper also said it was great to see so many visitors eager to support the region get back on its feet.
The family plans to visit the Tablelands and beaches during the next two weeks.
On Sunday, the first flight from Brisbane Airport’s new runway will land in Cairns.