Future Aviation: Business travel worth $250m to Brisbane

It’s the industry that attracts two million visitors to Brisbane each year — with each of them spending up to $660 in the city each day.

CORPORATE high-flyers from China are top of the list for Brisbane’s economic development board to help generate billions more tourism dollars for the local ­economy.

Reward programs that send high-performing business people in China on overseas development trips are becoming more popular, and Brisbane Marketing is positioning the city to cash in on the big-spending travellers.

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Brisbane welcomed more than two million international and domestic business tourists last financial year – a 10 per cent increase on the previous 12 months.

The conventions and business events they attend generate about $250 million every year.

But it’s the business people attending the events that prove most lucrative, with the average expenditure for international delegates valued over $660 per day.

The River City is a popular destination for “incentive events” because of its proximity to Asia, increased airline capacity with Brisbane Airport’s new runway set to open in the middle of next year, and a growth in tourism infrastructure including 20 new four and five-star hotels.

Future Aviation, a two-week series in partnership with Brisbane Airport, Tourism and Events Queensland, Brisbane Marketing and PwC, is highlighting the opportunities of the new runway.

Business travellers have been identified as a key strategic focus in Brisbane Marketing’s Visitor Economy 2031 Vision, which aims to secure an additional $6.5 billion a year in visitor expenditure and support 50,000 new jobs.

Brisbane Marketing CEO Brett Fraser said while the city had traditionally been recognised as a conference destination, its profile as a place for companies to reward employees through incentive events was rapidly rising.

“Over the next three to five years we’ll focus on increasing business events and delegate numbers from growing Asian regions, particularly where there are existing or potential airline routes,” he said.

“The United States also remains a strong focus and the new direct Qantas flights from Chicago and San Francisco will strengthen Brisbane’s bids for US-headquarter association conferences.

“In the incentive event space, our main focus is China.

Brisbane Airport is an increasingly important hub for the region’s convention circuit.

“Compared to bidding for traditional conferences, which can often take place years in advance, incentive bids can have a short lead time, so there’s a real opportunity to secure some large incentive business within the next six or 12 months.”

Brisbane Marketing, Tourism and Events Queensland and Tourism Australia hosted the city’s first “mega incentive groups” in the past three months, which has seen 4000 Chinese delegates visit Brisbane, generating an estimated $10 million for the economy.

TEQ CEO Leanne Coddington said Queensland was an attractive business destination because our unique tourism experiences could be “easily worked into a conference schedule or provide an amazing itinerary for an incentive group”.

“We then often see business travellers returning with friends or family after having had a taste of Queensland,” she said.

Flight Centre will host its Global Gathering Conference in Brisbane next July, bringing up to 4500 top-performing travel consultants, executives and senior travel industry figures to the region and delivering a $7 million economic boost.

Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre

Brisbane Marketing’s Mr Fraser said hotels, restaurants, retailers and service providers all benefited from business events that were hosted in Brisbane.

He said that hosting a business event “could foster innovation, stimulate trade and attract foreign investment”.

Mr Fraser said that such meetings had a lasting legacy in addition to the immediate tourism benefits.

“Strengths in research and innovation, globally acclaimed event facilities, an infrastructure boom and our warm and welcoming people all add to Brisbane’s appeal as a destination for business events,” he said.

Brisbane Marketing has hit a new record for economic value secured through bids won for future business events.

Working with the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre and TEQ, 91 business events worth more than $112 millionhave been secured for Brisbane through to 2026.

The scheduled events will attract an estimated 47,600 industry experts and delegates to the city.