Premier determined to continue to drive international visitors to Cairns

Additional international flights into Cairns secured by the Palaszczuk Government have helped the Tropical North region claim more than 900,000 overseas visitors last year – an increase of 15%.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said recent international tourist data showed almost 93% (or 837,000) of total international visitors to Tropical North Queensland were holiday travellers.

“As a Government, we have worked with international carriers such as Hong Kong Airlines and Jin Air, to attract more flights into Cairns. This is paying off for tourism operators and Cairns region economy,” she said.

International visitors spent $1.1 billion, up to 10%, in the region last year. In Tropical North Queensland, tourism supports 23,500 jobs and contributes more than $4.7 billion to our local economy.

“My Government is determined to attract more flights and encourage more local and overseas investment into our tourism industry.”

In August last year, Cairns hosted the Premier’s Connecting with Asia Forum attracting up to 400 tourism industry leaders would join government ministers and key stakeholders.

“We know the growing Asia middle class has the potential to drive significant growth in visitors to Queensland and that’s why we are so determined to grow Queensland's visitor economy to drive economic growth and jobs in the tourism sector,” she said.

The Premier said highlighted the opportunities for tourism with Provincial Leaders at the Australia-China Forum in Sydney to coincide with the visit by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. The Premier said Tourism Minister Kate Jones was leading trade mission to China from 24-31 March and will meet with a range of senior in-market airline and tourism trade officials.

“With double-digit annual growth in tourism, it’s critical the tourism industry increases the number of rooms available for international as well as visitors from interstate and within Queensland,” the Premier said.

Media contact: Kirby Anderson (Premier’s office) 0417 263 791