Queensland travel surges past pre-pandemic records

It’s been a while since we’ve heard the word ‘lockdown’, and even ‘COVID’ is mentioned less and less. Up in Queensland – a state of many pandemic border closures – travel is finally back on track. In fact, traveller stats are now better than pre-2020, and that good news is flowing through to the hotel market as well.

Queensland now welcomes 27 million visitors per year, surpassing pre-pandemic records. With more visitors comes more spending, too – those totals are now 0.9% greater than 2019. For Accor, its Queensland hotels are nudging 71% occupancy, an improvement from 69.2% in the year prior.

The chain has over 12,000 rooms in Queensland alone, with even more to come. Accor Pacific Chief Operating Officer PM&E, Adrian WIlliams, provides an update in Brisbane.

More flights key to more Queensland visitors

An influx of new and returning air routes is, no doubt, contributing towards greater inbound tourism. The strongest performers in Queensland are Cairns and Brisbane, with forward bookings also strong on the Gold Coast.

As for Cairns, occupancy is up by seven percentage points. Cairns has been home to seasonal China Eastern flights from Shanghai. It’ll also be reconnected with Hong Kong from December when Cathay Pacific resumes its direct service. Singapore Airlines also recently upgraded its aircraft on the Cairns-Singapore route from the Boeing 737 MAX to the (significantly larger) Airbus A350.

Down in Brisbane, Accor’s hotel occupancy is up 4.6 percentage points year-on-year. The city has seen a resumption of direct flights from Guangzhou and Shanghai, joining a strong roster of other international carriers. This year will also see the launch of direct Brisbane-Dallas/Fort Worth flights on American Airlines. In the US market, Delta will also kick off Brisbane-Los Angeles flights by the year’s end.

Adding to that, Jetstar begins Brisbane-Bangkok flights in mid-December, Qantas is taking off from Brisbane to Port Vila in September, and to Manila in October. QantasLink’s Brisbane-Wellington flights will also migrate to Qantas mainline flying in late October. This brings a larger aircraft into the mix with greater capacity, further boosting international traveller numbers to and from Queensland.

Brisbane continues to be one of Australia’s best performing cities, built on its top-class events calendar and complemented by the city’s ever-increasing reputation for dining, entertainment, and lifestyle attractions – such as the phenomenal Bluey’s World, which has really helped put Brisbane in the international spotlight.

It is only eight years until the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, so we can anticipate major activity around infrastructure development in the coming years, which will stimulate both domestic and international arrivals to the city, as well as to Olympic co-hosts, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast.

– Adrian Williams, Accor Pacific COO, September 2024

Cost of living pressures not deterring travel

In an exclusive interview with Point Hacks, Williams shares an interesting insight about traveller trends and belt-tightening. It surprised us!

There’s no question that there is tightening of the domestic spend. Leisure travel has shifted a bit from earlier this year, which was really centred around the big events. But what we take encouragement is that even with cost of living challenges that we recognise, people are still travelling.

People still want to go to shows, they still want to get out and have fun, really experience things. So yes, they might spend a little bit less in restaurants or a little bit less in bars. They might travel a little bit less during the year. But they’re still travelling and we’re seeing good year-on-year growth. So that’s encouraging.

In terms of the type of accommodation that people are staying in, you would think in a cost of living challenge that you would see people trading down. But we’re not seeing that. We’re seeing really good demand growth in premium and luxury hotels.

I think, what that is, is that if things are a bit tough, when you go out, you want to make sure that you’re getting good value. You want to make sure that you’re having a great experience, so you’re going to treat yourself. So we’re actually seeing good demand across all of our segments.

Speaking of having a great experience, central Queensland is set to get its first five-star hotel next month. Peppers Gladstone is earmarked for an October 2024 opening: a bespoke property with just 32 rooms. It’ll adjoin the existing Mantra Hotel at Yaralla Sports Club.

Along with strong demand from domestic travellers, Queensland is seeing significant volumes of visitors from a few key markets. Namely, New Zealand, China, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States. Travel from Asia is also likely to continue growing, with Hong Kong Airlines set to return to the Gold Coast in 2025.

Hong Kong Airlines is a partner of Virgin Australia, although the reciprocal points partnership between the two airlines has been on ice for some time. Perhaps, this news might help nudge that back into the spotlight. We’ll have to wait and see.

Also read: Accor unveils two new Melbourne Airport hotels

Featured image courtesy of Pullman Brisbane King George Square/Accor. Chris Chamberlin travelled to Brisbane at Point Hacks’ expense.

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