Funding for Cairns educators to capture greater slice of Asian markets

Industry cluster Study Cairns will receive State Government funding to attract a larger share of the lucrative Asian student market.

Regional Development and Industry Minister Desley Boyle, also the Member for Cairns, today announced a $50,000 grant for Study Cairns to develop and implement a major marketing strategy.

“During the past 10 years, Study Cairns has put Cairns on the map as a quality provider of international education,” Ms Boyle said.

“The sector has been a key contributor to the regional economy, bringing in more than
$50 million in 2006 as well as 12,000 international students from more than 30 countries.

“This funding will help Study Cairns to attract more students from Japan, China and Korea - some of the largest education markets in the world.

“Strengthening Queensland’s regional economies is a major priority for the Bligh Government and international education and training is a key growth area for Cairns and the Far North,” Ms Boyle said.

She said the funding was part of a commitment by the Queensland Government to continue supporting local business projects in the region.

“Last year, then State Development Minister John Mickel assured me the $250,000 in annual funding previously allocated to CREDC (Cairns Region Economic Development Corporation) would remain available for local projects,” Ms Boyle said.

“As evidence of that commitment, I’m pleased to announce this $50,000 for Study Cairns.”

Study Cairns President Janine Bowmaker said an economic profile commissioned in 2003/04 by Cummings Research projected student numbers for the Cairns region would grow to 19,000 by 2010.

Ms Bowmaker said the $50,000 funding would be used to employ a marketing specialist.

“The specialist will work closely with members to develop connections and create cross promotion opportunities that highlight and position Cairns in key markets as the region of choice for international students.

“We currently have a good market in Japan, but we believe we can build on this further. For example, given that about quarter of a million Japanese tourists visit Tropical North Queensland every year, this has huge potential for our industry if we can go about it the right way,” Ms Bowmaker said.

“With Korea, the market is definitely growing and we are starting to tap into it. But an issue for our industry is the lack of direct flights between Korea and Cairns. So we’re working very closely with the airline industry in putting the case for direct flights into Cairns.

“With China, we’re finding that more and more Chinese students are coming here, but this is a massive market and we’re really only scratching the tip of the iceberg. Our members have good networks in China, especially James Cook, so we’ll use these as platforms to proactively capture a greater slice of the market there,” Ms Bowmaker said.

This announcement comes after the news on Monday that Japanese wholesaler JTB Kyushu will bring more than 14,000 Japanese school students to Cairns over the next three years as part of a school excursion program.

Queensland Treasury statistics showed Queensland had 41,736 international student enrolments at July 2007, about 14 per cent of the Australian total.

Queensland’s main international markets are (at July 2007):
o China - 6877 students;
o South Korea - 4807 students and;
o India - 3073 students.

International students in Queensland studied (at July 2007):
o Higher education 50.1 per cent;
o English Language Courses (ELICOS) 16.2 per cent;
o Vocational Education and Training (VET) 15.7 per cent;
o Schools 9.6 per cent and;
o other 8.5 per cent.

Study Cairns is an education cluster representing the region’s international education and support services. For more information, go to: www.studycairns.com.au.

Ends

Media contacts:
Minister Boyle: 3224 2007 or Study Cairns president Janine Bowmaker: 0416 248 180
11 January 2007