Post-Covid pursuit of wellness has corporates beating a path to regional cities

The concrete jungles of Melbourne and Sydney are out and a new regional city – with real jungles and an ocean breeze – becomes the country’s business conference capital.

Forget the concrete jungles of Sydney and Melbourne. Business travellers are increasingly heading to the regions for meetings in a move aimed at enhancing workers’ wellness.

Leading the business exodus out of the major cities is Cairns in far north Queensland with demand for corporate travel up 76 per cent this year compared to 2019.

Flight Centre Corporate data showed Broken Hill in New South Wales was the next biggest mover with bookings up 69 per cent followed by Ballina-Byron Bay with a 56 per cent jump.

Rockhampton and the Sunshine Coast had also seen double digit increases in business travel helping to boost regional economies outside of traditional holiday periods.

Australia and New Zealand managing director of Flight Centre Corporate Melissa Elf, said they first noticed the shift to more regional trips last year as business travel picked up.

“It’s no surprise that businesses are now looking to more regional areas to combine upgraded corporate spaces in those areas with one eye on the wellness of their people by being beside the ocean,” Ms Elf said.

“There’s also the combination of low availability in state capitals and major cities as big businesses return in their droves to face-to-face interactions, along with regional areas offering better value for money for corporations that are willing to travel somewhere different for a potential cost saving.”

Cairns has become a top pick for corporate travellers seeking to make business trips a healthier experience. Picture: Kinga Urban

Much of the business traffic into Cairns was in response to the city’s new-found status as the country’s conference capital.

Tourism Tropical North Queensland partnership and events general manager Rosie Douglas said they had just hosted the Strata Community Association annual conference and in coming months would host the Australian Banana Industry Congress and the Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists National Convention.

“Strategic conferences like these during the shoulder season help to build the capacity and profile of our local industries while bringing in delegates who tend to spend twice as much as a leisure visitor and often return for a holiday with their family,” Ms Douglas said.

Cairns was also preparing to host leading events management company Arinex which chose the city for its “awe-inspiring natural wonders”.

Arinex managing director Nicole Walker said the conference would mark 50 years in business for Australia’s first certified carbon neutral events company.

“Cairns is the perfect location for us to celebrate this momentous occasion, reflect on our progress and set our sights on the path ahead,” Ms Walker said.

Internationally Dubai was seeing the biggest uplift in demand from business travellers, with bookings up 55 per cent on 2019 levels.

Ms Elf said the city was “geographically perfect” for meetings, conferences and events given it was reachable by a single flight from most business centre cities across the world.

“Aside from having one of the largest airport hubs globally, the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates is also serviced by most major air carriers, and it also benefits from having some of the best and most well-known hotels in the world,” she said.

Other overseas destinations seeing lots of Australian business travellers were Port Moresby, Bangkok, Johannesburg and London.

In many cases the trips were not strictly business with Flight Centre Corporate noting a dramatic rise in the “bleisure” trip.

“That would be one of the many reasons Bangkok has experienced such a takeoff, with major cities like London maintaining a strong growth as one of the world’s economic capitals,” Ms Elf said.

Originally published as Post-Covid pursuit of wellness has corporates beating a path to regional cities