Brisbane visitor spending hits new record for 2024 after business travel boom

Business travellers have helped boost Brisbane visitor spending last year to a new record. It comes as two major overseas airlines are about to expand flights here.

Business leisure travel helped pump up Brisbane’s visitor numbers last year to a new record.

Visitors injected a record $11.3bn into Brisbane’s economy last year with the booming “bleisure’’ sector behind the surge, the latest Tourism Research Australia data has revealed.

The figures showed more business travellers were extending their stay in Brisbane before or after attending meetings and conferences.

Corporate travel was up a whopping 13.5 per cent to 2.1 million visits, while nights stayed soared nearly one-third to a record 5.8 million.

The good news came a week after Brisbane City Council and the Brisbane Economic Development Agency (BEDA) unveiled a pre-Easter nationwide ad campaign to claw back a $70m hit to the city’s tourism sector due to ex-Cyclone Alfred.

Brisbane Airport’s International Terminal also has had its two busiest ever months, in December and January.

Crowds at the opening of the Kangaroo Point Bridge, one of several major new attractions luring interstate and overseas visitors. Picture: Lachie Millard

In December more than 631,700 passengers passed through the Brisbane International Terminal, beating the previous 620,000 record set five years ago.

But that record was broken just a month later with 638,800 passengers travelling through the International Terminal, in January this year.

“We know that when Brisbane Airport is busy, so are hotels, bars, restaurants and shops,” Brisbane Airport CEO Gert-Jan de Graaff said.

“This has a ripple effect throughout the entire economy, pumping billions of dollars into the pockets of Queenslanders.’’

Brisbane has become flavour of the month — or year — in Victoria. Arrivals from that state climbed 28 per cent last year to a new high of 1.1 million.

Interest from NSW was also off the charts, up 18 per cent to 2 million.

Internationally, arrivals from New Zealand and India set new records and 18.2 million people from Asia as a whole arrived last year.

Singapore Airlines is expanding flights to Brisbane. Picture: Roslan Rahman / AFP

South Korea was the standout, with numbers up by more than one third.

The data also revealed overseas visitors were staying longer in Brisbane, about 22 nights on average.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said there was now more to see and do in the city, including the recently opened Kangaroo Point green bridge which was on track to have 1 million bike and pedestrian crossings in coming months.

BEDA chief executive Anthony Ryan said global business conferences and major events had helped drive the strong numbers.

The data came amid news that Singapore Airlines planned to boost flights to Brisbane from 24 to 28 per week, from June 16.

China Southern was expanding from five flights per week to daily services, from June 10, via the key gateway of Guangzhou.

Originally published as Brisbane visitor spending hits new record for 2024 after business travel boom