CommBank data reveals tourism recovery fuelling business investment
New data has revealed the Far North is a major winner as Australians rediscover their desire to travel, helping to rejuvenate the region’s economy.
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New Commonwealth Bank data has revealed the Far North is a major winner as Australians rediscover their desire to travel, helping to rejuvenate the region’s economy and provide confidence for businesses to invest in themselves.
According to the new figures from CBA, Cairns and Far North Queensland have experienced strong growth across key sectors in the June quarter to date compared with the same period last year.
CBA’s group executive business banking Mike Vacy-Lyle said the Far North was one of the fastest growing regions in their regional and agribusiness portfolio.
“The stories are the diversification away from just tourism to a services-based economy and the growth in the population,” Mr Vacy-Lyle said.
“We have seen tourism has bounced back from Covid, seeing close to 2019 levels, but the fact there is diversification into the other sectors, into education and healthcare on the back of population growth is very exciting.
“There is a lot happening here, so there is lots of opportunity.”
The CBA transaction data revealed hospitality venues, including restaurants, and bars, saw a 31 per cent boost in tourism spending over the past quarter. Others to benefit from the domestic tourism dollar were caravan parks and campgrounds up 18 per cent, travel agencies and tour operators up 17 per cent, and accommodation and lodgings up six per cent.
The CBA data comes off the back of the release of the latest passenger numbers from Cairns Airport which showed continued improvement, reflecting similar figures to pre-Covid March 2019 levels - 365,031 - versus 360,444 in March 2024.
CBA's executive general manager regional and agribusiness banking Paul Fowler said: “Visitor levels are back to pre-Covid levels but visitor spend is actually much higher. We are seeing that initial spend going into the local area.”
Mr Vacy-Lyle said businesses in the region were investing their money back into their own growth at a remarkable level.
“Our asset finance, which is investment in productive equipment, is growing at 300 per cent in the Cairns area and Far North Queensland is growing at over 200 per cent overall,” he said.
“We are doing three times the asset financing that we were doing last year at the moment and that is people investing in productive capacity.
“It’s everything from motor vehicles, right through to engineering capability, plant equipment, pretty much across the board.
“When you are seeing people investing in a productive capacity it means there is something going on.”
Mr Vacy-Lyle said CBA was in the Far North to see how it was recovering after the flooding of Cyclone Jasper.
“We also wanted to see how the region is recovering after the tough times with the flooding, he said.
“We were talking to one of our clients who said that they lost 21 vehicles that were washed away, which is a significant loss for a business to stomach.
“We were very active with our financial assistance to businesses and the general population from a bank perspective so we wanted to see how the region has bounced back.”
Originally published as CommBank data reveals tourism recovery fuelling business investment
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