A fortune flying right over our heads

We’ve analysed just how much our local economy is making each time an international flight lands at Brisbane Airport. TAKE A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS

EVERY planeload of international passengers that lands in Brisbane tips $620,000 into the Queensland economy, exclusive research released to The Courier-Mail shows.

The revealing breakdown of who’s flying into Brisbane shows that Chinese visitors are pouring in an average $8900 each visit, followed by Europeans ($6100) and Americans ($5100).

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High on Brisbane tourism bosses’ hit list is tapping the growing Chinese and Indian visitor market.

Chinese visits through Brisbane Airport grew 18.5 per cent last year, while India grew more than 15 per cent, according to the report prepared by PwC.

New data shows that every domestic flight tipped in just over $100,000.

The information was released as part of Future Aviation, a two-week series The Courier-Mail is running in partnership with Brisbane Airport, Tourism & Events Queensland, Brisbane City Council and PwC, highlighting the opportunities of the new runway, which opens in the middle of next year.

Brisbane International Airport. Picture: Tara Croser.

Growth from India and China will account for a whopping 78 per cent of the extra visitor nights tourism bosses are pitching for to bump up their industry’s contribution to south-east Queensland’s economy by $6.5 billion over the next decade. Visitor numbers from the two emerging tourism superpowers are growing far ­quicker than traditional, more mature markets such as Japan (1.1 per cent), the US (0.3 per cent) and New Zealand (3.4 per cent).

Stretching Chinese and Indian stays even longer is the key to success, according to the Visitor Economy 2031 Vision. Under the vision, tourist spending is projected to reach $10 billion in the greater Brisbane region by 2031. But extra investment, combined with stretching visits by half and day and pitching unique Brisbane experiences, would add an extra $6.5 billion a year.

The vision was one of the top five action items from The Courier-Mail’s Future Tourism plan earlier this year.

Brisbane Airport executive general manager of aviation development Jim Parashos said India was one of the world’s fastest-growing travel markets with more than 300,000 Indians visiting Australia last year and more than 30,000 visiting Brisbane.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the stretch to an extra $6.5 billion was a series of realistic measures.

“Something as simple as getting people to stay an extra day and an extra night in Brisbane can have billions of dollars worth of positive impact,” Cr Schrinner said.

“We are in similar time zones to some of the world’s fastest growing tourism markets. This is not a matter of having to come from the other side of the world.

“For people in China and in India, it’s a reasonable flight in to Brisbane. They can come and land here 24 hours a day, because we have no curfew on the airport. They’re not going to arrive jet-lagged because we are in similar time zones.

$620,000 goes into the local economy every time an international flight lands at Brisbane Airport. Picture: Tara Croser.

“There’s unlimited potential to attract more tourists to Brisbane, particularly from that Asia Pacific region.

“There are staggering numbers of people wanting to travel from China and India and if we can capture even a fraction of that market, that’s a massive injection into the Brisbane and south-east Queensland economy.”

Queensland managing ­director for The Star, Geoff Hogg, said that the new ­runway would help lure even more tourists to Brisbane and the rest of Queensland. “When you think of a lot more international flights particularly out of Asia and China coming to Australia, having an airport that has the ­capacity to grow as those flights and demand for those flights increases is really important,” Mr Hogg said.

“Clearly the Brisbane Airport was going to struggle to be able to meet that future demand without the supply and the flexibility the second runway has given them,’’ he said.

Originally published as A fortune flying right over our heads