Giving a snapshot of Brisbane’s visitor economy for the year to March 2024, Anthony Ryan, CEO of Brisbane Economic Development Agency (BEDA), said the city had a record international visitor expenditure of $3.2 billion, up 10.9 per cent year on year and a record domestic visitor expenditure of $7.4 billion, up 7.1 per cent year on year.
Amongst the 8.4 million visitors over the year were 1.8 million business visitors, up 13.5 per cent.
Ryan said the Brisbane economy was expected to grow 41 per cent by 2031 – the eve of the city’s first Olympic Games.
For the hotel sector he said the city’s RevPAR growth since 2019 had reached 47 per cent and was the “highest in the country”. There will be 9,000 new hotel rooms in time for the 2032 Olympic Games, he said.
Figures from Accommodation Australia show that Brisbane currently has eight new hotels under construction encompassing a total of 1,298 rooms. Most are scheduled to complete this year with one due by February 2026. The hotels include one upscale, two midscale, four upper midscale and one luxury.
Beyond that, Accommodation Australia puts another seven hotels – five of them upscale – with a total of 639 rooms, in advanced planning with due dates between September 2026 and June 2030. A further seven hotels with a total of 931 rooms are currently listed as “deferred”.
Commenting on the city’s hotel performance for June 2024, Accommodation Australia’s Tom Fitzgerald said May’s “bumper revenue performance was always going to be hard to beat”.
Nevertheless, he added that room occupancy held steady at 74.4 per cent across June, with solid demand at the beginning and end of the month with events such as the Global Sustainable Tourism Summit and the Australian Large-Scale Solar and Storage Summit early on, and the International Symposium on Electronic Art and Enviro Conference later in June, significantly boosting hotel demand during their respective periods.
BEDA’s general manager of tourism, business and major events, Lorelle Chittick, said that during the last financial year, there were 109 major sporting, cultural and business events generating $287.2 million in economic activity to Brisbane’s $10.1 billion visitor economy.
Citing business events results, Chittick said 90 future events have been secured between 2023 and 2028, generating a $100 million economic impact. In addition, the city achieved 14 more incentive bid wins over the previous year.
Over the 2024-2025 financial year Brisbane will host business events including the World Angus Forum for 1,000 pax, EvokeAG for 1,600 pax, the Organisation for Human Brain Mapping Annual Meeting for 2,000 pax, the IFLA World Library and Information Congress for 1,500 pax, the International Federation of Surveyors Working Week for 1,800 pax and the International Congress for Conservation Biology for 1,500 pax. The city is also hosting the mostly domestic Professional Conference Organisers Association (PCOA) conference at the end of this year for around 400 pax.
In the following financial year Brisbane will host the Congress of the Baptist World Alliance for 5,000 pax and the IUSSP International Population Congress for 2,000 pax.
Chittick also said the city had secured 21 major events up to 2027 with an estimated economic impact of $423 million.
