Experience Co boss makes Covid fightback observation
Despite direct offshore arrivals soon expected to hit a 17 year high, the Far North has a significant work to do in terms of fully bouncing back to a pre-pandemic international visitation rate.
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Despite direct offshore arrivals soon expected to hit a 17 year high, the Far North has work to do to return to a pre-pandemic international visitation rate.
In the year ending March 2024 the region welcomed 491,000 international visitors which equated to a decrease of 39.2 compared to 2019, according to Tourism Tropical North Queensland.
Visitor expenditure equalled $894.8m in a reduction from the 2019 spend and domestic expenditure fell 11 per cent from the previous year to $3.8bn due to flooding cancellations.
Experience Co chief executive and TTNQ chair John O’Sullivan in Cairns on Thursday to christen a new reef boat, Aquarius II, said the latest numbers indicated the Far North was only 60 per cent recovered in terms of international holiday-maker arrivals.
“That’s a component that is absolutely critical, but we’ve still got a ways to go,” he said.
“Eighty per cent of international holiday-makers come to Cairns via Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne.
“You’ve got smaller aircraft, less seats and they’re more expensive, so that’s a real impediment to that growth going to the next step.”
New direct flights from Christchurch and Fiji Airways’ services to Nadi beginning on April 10 will be critical to boosting of international arrivals the absence of a year-round service from China since 2019 and the end to a direct seasonal service on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong this Saturday.
“What Richard Barker and his team have done at the (Cairns) Airport has been nothing short of amazing (and) the airport (has to) keep adding direct point-to-point capacity, so people from Singapore, Japan and places like Hong Kong Christchurch can get here directly and bypass those domestic routes.”
Also while in Cairns the former Tourism Australia boss pledged support for the long debated bed tax. Asked why the controversial visitor levy should happen now when for the past decade campaigns for the tourist tax had fallen short, Mr O’Sullivan said there was now “broad-base” support.
“There’s never been a unified position on it as there is now from the industry,” he said.
Under the scheme supported by Cairns Regional Council earlier this month a visitor levy of 2.5 per cent to each guest night would raise an estimated $16m annually for the council to reinvest in the sector.
Mayor Amy Eden at the Aquarius II launch used her speech to advocate for the proposed visitor charge she said was not a “bed tax”.
“The important difference is a tax is a general revenue (or) money that’s collected and put into the general piggy bank,” she said.
“A levy is quarantined for a specific purpose, and the visitor levy is quarantined to boost tourism.”
On Thursday evening Far North leaders and tourism stakeholders set sail aboard Aquarius II for a twilight cruise up Trinity Inlet.
The acquisition of the new 26m multifunctional vessel is aimed at capitalising on the growing cruise and business events charter market and will operate under the Reef Unlimited brand.
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