Accommodation Occupancy Rates Best in Five Years

Throughout recent months I have had this statement affirmed to me by many local complex managers; all claiming to have had their best previous 12-month period since the GFC. I am told by most managers that since 2010 each year has shown a marked improvement in trend occupancy rates in turn positively influencing the nightly room rates achieved. This is welcomed news for many owners of holiday apartments who have been hit with a double-edged sword following the GFC with decreased returns and also increased expenses almost exclusively associated with rising strata-title insurance levies.

HOTELIERS in the Far North have had their best three months of occupancy rates in five years.

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The latest edition of the Tourism and Transport Forum-HOSTPLUS National Accommodation Barometer shows continuing strong demand for accommodation in Australia.

Forum chief executive John Lee said the industry was benefiting from the relatively strong Australian economy and popularity of short breaks.

“Demand for accommodation in our capitals, along with the Gold Coast and Cairns, is very strong at 81.3 per cent for the September quarter, on par with the same period in 2011,” he said.

“Pleasingly, Cairns saw an occupancy rate of 76.6 per cent for the quarter.

“Port Douglas saw very strong revenue per available room growth compared with the September 2011 quarter.”

Accor’s Cairns hotels finished last year with an average occupancy for its city hotels of 80.1 per cent, up more than 1 percentage point on 2011 and almost 9 percentage points ahead of the overall Cairns market.

A stand-out performed for the group was the Pullman Reef Hotel Casino, which achieved its highest occupancy on record, averaged 84 per cent for the year.

Pullman Reef Hotel Casino general manager Wayne Reynolds said the strength of occupancy last year augured well for this year.

“...We saw an increase in meetings and conferences, along with growth in domestic leisure and inbound business, particularly from China...”

“Pleasingly, we saw an increase in meetings and conferences, along with growth in domestic leisure and inbound business, particularly from China,” he said.

Article printed in The Cairns Post – 31st January 2013

Peter Musso licensed real estate agent at Ray White Smithfield selling property in Cairns' beautiful northern beach suburbs including Trinity Beach, Kewarra Beach, Clifton Beach, Palm Cove, Trinity Park, Smithfield, Yorkeys Knob, Holloways Beach, Machans Beach, Caravonica, Kamerunga and surrounds.

Cairns CBD Aquarium Plan

PLANS for a $33.5 million aquarium in the heart of Cairns have taken a giant leap forward after the project's developers bought a 4000sqm block of land just a stone's throw from the city's popular Esplanade tourist strip.

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Trinity Beach business partners Daniel Leipnik and Andrew Preston bought the land from the owners of the Novotel Cairns Oasis Resort, bounded by Abbott, Florence and Lake streets, for $2 million.

"Buying this land shows our commitment to the Cairns aquarium," Mr Leipnik, who is the chief executive officer of Cairns Aquarium and Reef Research Centre Pty Ltd, said.

"We are very excited. The passion for this is our driving force. It is our primary love."

Expressions of interest for the design and development will close on March 15, and the Cairns Aquarium opening date is set for late 2016. Mr Leipnik said specialists behind aquariums in Melbourne, Sydney, Mooloolaba, Korea, Dubai and Singapore were being targeted for the design and development.

He said, apart from the aquarium designers, almost everything else involved in the building, including construction, supplies, marine life, website designs and signs, would be sourced from the Far North.

An estimated 250 people would be employed on the project, including 150 construction workers, nearly 80 full-time operational staff and up to 25 volunteers.

The businessmen have committed $15 million to the aquarium with the balance from private investors and local, state and federal government funding with applications before the three levels of government.

Independent research suggests between 355,000 and 360,000 visitors a year but the proponents are aiming for up to 500,000.

Mr Preston said the designers were being urged to provide something "innovative and unique" for Cairns.
"It will be a very spectacular, natural and iconic building with a wow factor," he said.

The ground floor will contain two "gigantic" tanks containing a million litres-plus of water. One would be a mini Great Barrier Reef and the other a freshwater lagoon.

There will be five main themes of dangers of the deep (sharks, irukandji, box jellyfish, stonefish, pufferfish and sea snakes), river monsters (sawfish, giant barramundi, freshwater stingrays, lungfish and crocodiles), reptiles and amphibians, mountain streams and rivers and life in the mangroves.

The mature mango trees and a eucalyptus tree on the site would be retained and be part of a Daintree-style boardwalk and mangrove lagoon feature.

The businessmen have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre and are negotiating one with James Cook University.

They said they had previously negotiated with Ports North for waterfront land, as well as considering Cairns Regional Council property, but decided to buy their own.

Article printed in The Cairns Post - January 9th 2013

Peter Musso licensed real estate agent at Ray White Smithfield selling property in Cairns' beautiful northern beach suburbs including Trinity Beach, Kewarra Beach, Clifton Beach, Palm Cove, Trinity Park, Smithfield, Yorkeys Knob, Holloways Beach, Machans Beach, Caravonica, Kamerunga and surrounds.

Clive Palmer Buys Port Douglas Resort & Golf Course

BILLIONAIRE miner Clive Palmer has bought the Sea Temple Golf and Country Club at Port Douglas for about $7 million.

Clive Palmer - Australian Mining Magnate

He told The Cairns Post he made the "unconditional" deal last Friday after making an aerial inspection by helicopter on Thursday.

It is his first investment in the Far North and at Port Douglas.

Sea Temple golf was owned by the Juniper Group and has been on the market for a year. Mr Palmer said at this stage he was unlikely to buy any more properties in the Far North.

The deal includes the award-winning 18-hole golf course, of 6125m, par 71 and designed by Thomson, Wolveridge and Perret, a housing estate development with 45 premium home sites fronting the golf course, averaging 820sq m and existing development approval for an additional 10 fairway lots, averaging 1333sqm.

Aerial view of Port Douglas

"I like golf courses but I am not a very good golfer," Mr Palmer said.

He said he had no immediate plans for the golf course and the surrounding residential land.

"I haven't decided but I am happy for it to continue as a golf course."

Mr Palmer said he had personally bought the course, not his company which owns three other courses on the Sunshine and Gold coasts Port Douglas Chamber of Commerce president Phoebe Kitto said it was the best news for the seaside resort town.

"It's the sign of greater things to come," she said.

"It comes after a good season and the eclipse is looking good. There's a real good positive feel and businesses are feverishly working together."

Ms Kitto said it was now up to the Cairns Regional Council to back up private investment in town with the Port Douglas waterfront plan as soon as possible.

CBRE Hotels Queensland director Wayne Bunz, who negotiated the deal, said the contract was unconditional with settlement in 30 days.

He said it was an "astute investment" by Mr Palmer.

"Clive Palmer does not overpay for anything. He has seen the incredible value in the future," Mr Bunz said.
"It's proved to be a very smart investment," he said.

"He's paid substantially below replacement value. Clive Palmer has always had a good eye for good assets," he said.

Mr Bunz said golf courses usually cost $1 million a hole plus the cost of land.

"This is a huge boost for Port Douglas," he said.

Mr Bunz said Mr Palmer had recognised the value of tourism properties in north Queensland which boded well for the region's future.

"In the next 12 to 18 months I see an increase in transactions in north Queensland," he said.
Mr Bunz said he believed the region's economy had reached the bottom.

Tourism pioneer John Morris, who developed the course in the late 1990s, said he was "delighted" that Mr Palmer was the new owner.

"It is a great result and as I understand he has no plans to develop the golf range," he said.
Mr Morris said Mr Palmer was buying a course that was in "great shape".

"It's an excellent buy it's forward thinking," he said.

Mr Morris said it would be impossible to buy the land and build an 18-hole course for the money Mr Palmer paid.

Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland's Far Northern chairman Brett Moller said it was "a positive sign for our future".

"Port Douglas as a destination certainly needs investment like this and Clive Palmer is a significant property and development investor,'' he said.

It is understood other interest in the golf course included Sheraton Mirage owner David Marriner, who considered buying the course to amalgamate with the resort's links, a Far North syndicate and Chinese investors.

Article printed by The Cairns Post - November 7th 2012

Peter Musso licensed real estate agent at Ray White Smithfield selling property in Cairns' beautiful northern beach suburbs including Trinity Beach, Kewarra Beach, Clifton Beach, Palm Cove, Trinity Park, Smithfield, Yorkeys Knob, Holloways Beach, Machans Beach, Caravonica, Kamerunga and surrounds.

China Boom Good for Far North's Economy

Just a quick post to update on a "hot topic" in the Far North at present - the recent introduction of direct flights from China. As someone on the ground speaking with buyers each day this topic comes up in every conversation involving the outlook for the local economy and property markets. And for good reason; the largest industry in Cairns is tourism with agriculture worth only half that in total gross domestic product. Needless to say when international conditions deteriorated post-GFC the economy in Cairns suffered - for better or worse, tourism is our life-blood.

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With further direct flights from China now confirmed by Cathay Pacific Airlines the extent to which Cairns is able to take advantage of this emerging international market is of increasing speculation. Without doubt there will be further news to come!

China boom is good fortune for Far North's tourism industry
Article printed by The Cairns Post 6th September 2012

THE number of Chinese travelling to the Far North is expected to double to nearly 190,000 a year within 12 months of three new services coming on stream from next month.

That’s the prediction of Cairns Airport chief executive officer Kevin Brown after Cathay Pacific Airlines yesterday announced changes to its arrival and departure times from Hong Kong to link to its flights from mainland China.

It comes as Chinese visitor numbers to the Far North continue to soar with the latest figures showing a 27 per cent jump on 2011 figures to 94,000 in the year ended June 30.

China Eastern flights arrive from Shanghai in October, China Southern flights from Guangzhou in December and the changes in Cathay’s daily schedule to connect with flights from Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and other cities are from November.

Mr Brown said he expected the 3500 seats a week to be full.

"Passenger numbers could double within a 12-month period."

"Passenger numbers could double within a 12-month period," he said.

Mr Brown said the airport would be working with key organisations such as Advance Cairns, the chamber of commerce, Tourism Tropical North Queensland, James Cook University and the convention centre to ensure the success of the trial flights, to make them permanent, increase the frequency and to enhance the Cathay services.

"It’s not just tourism, but business, corporate, education and academia travel as well," he said.

Cathay’s Queensland business development manager Howard Field said the airline’s changes were to ensure smooth connection to flights between Hong Kong and eight cities in China and to prevent overnight stays in Hong Kong.

"We expect Chinese numbers to grow by 25 per cent," he said.

Tourism Tropical North Queensland chief executive officer Rob Giason said the flights meant the Far North was on target to reach 200,000 Chinese holidaymakers visiting the region by 2015. "But that could very well accelerate," he said.

Mr Giason said as well as the direct flights the industry expected to maintain the high numbers coming to Cairns from other cities such as Brisbane and Sydney.

According to Tourism Research Australia’s international visitor survey overall international visitors were down 6 per cent to 616,000 while spending was up $35 million to $800 million.

Cairns is the third most popular destination in Queensland for the Chinese after the Gold Coast (412,000, up 18 per cent) and Brisbane (109,000, up 35 per cent).

The survey also found the number of Japanese visitors was 87,000 (down 11 per cent), the UK 76,000 (18 per cent), the US 75,000 (down 1 per cent), NZ 44,000 (up 19 per cent) and Germany 41,000 (down 13 per cent).

Mr Brown said he treated the IVS figures, particularly Japan and Europe, with "a degree of caution".

"I don’t think they are as bad as that. I deal with actual passenger numbers not sample survey sizes," he said.

Mr Brown said he believed the Japanese figures were far better.

"I’ve been speaking to many tourism operators who have said they haven’t seen so many Japanese in a long time. It’s still a very strong market."

Peter Musso licensed real estate agent at Ray White Smithfield selling property in Cairns' beautiful northern beach suburbs including Trinity Beach, Kewarra Beach, Clifton Beach, Palm Cove, Trinity Park, Smithfield, Yorkeys Knob, Holloways Beach, Machans Beach, Caravonica, Kamerunga and surrounds.

Building Approvals Continue to Rise

The Cairns Post - 'Signs our recovery on target'
CAIRNS building approvals have taken another giant leap this month, but a local industry figure warned it was not quite time to pop the champagne cork.

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Figures released yesterday showed the number of residential building approvals in the Far North had sky-rocketed almost 75 percent in the past month, the third highest figure around the state.

But Dixon Homes managing director Andrew Thomas said the results were more indicative of the market three months ago, not the present climate.

"I was excited three months ago, I'm not so excited now," he said.

"(But) I'm optimistic. With the low vacancy rates, overall the economy seems to be growing, there are reasonable tourism levels and there's been a change of government - people have a lot more confidence in the new government."

However, Master Builders regional manager Ron Bannah said he hoped the figures were a sign of the continuing recovery of the industry in the Far North.

"I think it's fair to say there's more and more confidence coming back," he said.

"I think we're starting to get some confidence in the banks."

"The banks have taken a flogging in the past 12 months, they've made it very difficult for people to borrow money.

They've come under a fair bit of criticism... but they've started to bend a little now."

Article printed by The Cairns Post - 12th July 2012
Writer: Grace Uhr

Peter Musso licensed real estate agent at Ray White Cairns Beaches selling property in Cairns' beautiful northern beach suburbs including Trinity Beach, Kewarra Beach, Clifton Beach, Palm Cove, Trinity Park, Smithfield, Yorkeys Knob, Holloways Beach, Machans Beach, Caravonica and surrounds.

China Predicted to Provide the Next Boost to FNQ

An article printed by The Age this weekend provides a timely account for the economic environment experienced in Far North Queensland throughout the past 4 years following the first impacts of the Global Financial Crisis. It is not hard to understand why the business climate in the Far North has reacted to depressed international tourism conditions in the way that it has, tourism is the largest industry in Far North Queensland with its gross domestic product (GDP) historically worth double that of agriculture, the second largest industry.

Most interesting are the personal accounts provided toward the end of the article by Cairns locals who assert that pronounced fluctuations in economic growth is just something that Cairns is used to, and that they are confident that the emerging Chinese tourist market will provide The Far North with its next much needed “boost”.

Perfect storms lash one-time tourist mecca
The Age - May 19^th 2012

ALONG The Esplanade in Cairns, scores of tourism outlets tussle grimly for passing trade. ''Hello!'' cry attendants to passing strangers from the doorways of cafes and restaurants, their hopeful smiles fading as each potential dollar moves on.

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Tour companies and their agencies display racks of brochures for countless struggling attractions spread across far north Queensland, each one a survivor of the longest, most comprehensive slump ever to strike the region. At night, while coach operators vie for backpackers to take on pub crawls, restaurants with prices pared to the bone hire young women in short dresses to stand on the footpath spruiking their menus and feigning interest in the doings of tourists.

It's tough up here.

More than 400 small businesses and several large development companies have gone to the wall since the slump began to bite in 2006-07. Compounded by the closure of the Cairns-based Australian Airlines in 2007, as well as the GFC, the Asian financial crisis, the high Australian dollar and the natural disasters of 2010-11, the downturn became a locally focused recession affecting every aspect of the economy.

Tourism, which returned $2.6 billion across the region in 2005-06, is now down by about $300 million, and Cairns (population 160,000) has an unemployment rate of 9.8 per cent - among the nation's highest, and double the state average. Despite promising signs of a recovery led by Chinese tourists, the European, UK and US markets - once the bread and butter of local tourism - remain mired in their own economic woes.

''China is the only growing market at the moment,'' says Steve Davies (pictured), operations manager of Big Cat Green Island Cruises. ''Everything else is stagnant, shrinking, dead or going nowhere.''

Bigger businesses such as Davies' have hung on by cutting costs, reducing staff, delaying equipment upgrades and sharing boat space with rival operators on days when there aren't enough passengers to make two cruises viable. Other major companies have been forced to diversify, merge or chase government tenders.

But small retailers, the so-called ''mum and dad'' operators, have been left with nowhere to hide. For veteran publican Gayle Scowcroft the crunch came last month, when she was forced to call in a liquidator, cut her losses and close the doors of Cairns' historic 114-year-old Cape York Hotel. Scowcroft's six-year battle to make a go of it seems to bear testament to the reigning wisdom among local hardheads. (''Tourism in Cairns has changed forever,'' asserts one real estate agent. ''Forget sentiment; from now on only the lean and mean will survive.'')

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But the popular and easy-going ex-publican, while admitting she made mistakes, has a different take on the circumstances that left her ''on the bones of my bum'' and $100,000 in debt. ''The whole thing made me realise just how much our country is based on greed,'' says the one-time Toowoomba school teacher who, with her late husband, Doug, had operated three other pubs before she and her son Ben took over the Cape York in 2006.

By 2010, she says, three new supermarket-owned liquor outlets (two Dan Murphys and a First Choice) had opened in Cairns, and her drive-through bottle shop couldn't compete.

The worsening tourism slump, rising rents, electricity and insurance costs added to her dilemma.

''I saw the writing on the wall, but I was pigheaded and a bit proud and I just wouldn't give up,'' Scowcroft says.

''My landlord wouldn't negotiate on the rent … Then my insurance went from $16,000 to $30,000, and they demanded the whole lot or I'd be uninsured … that's when I knew I'd have to get out.'' Scowcroft says she will stay in Cairns and try to find other work - ''perhaps on the political side of things. I'd like to do something to help the place recover.''

Over the past few years the slump has also claimed three of Cairns' largest construction/development tycoons: one-time plumber Tom Hedley (whose Hedley Leisure and Gaming Property Fund was valued at $1.2 billion in 2008); Roy Lavis (whose CEC Group collapsed last year with debts of almost $135 million); and Glencorp and Glenwood Homes owner Udo Jattke, who shut down his 30-year-old business last year owing $30 million.

Gavin King, as a Cairns Post journalist, wrote about these closures being part of a domino effect triggered by the tourism slump. He is now the new Liberal National Party state member for Cairns (the first conservative elected to the seat in more than a century) and says locals had not realised how inexorably their fortunes were linked to tourism until the ''big three'' went under.

''In past slumps, like the pilots' strike [in 1989], and the lull after 9/11, the big operators were able to hang on with ancillary businesses,'' King told The Saturday Age. ''But this is much worse … these past four to six years have been a really prolonged period of pain. A lot of businesses are still on their knees. But there is an air of hope, particularly in the situation with China, and the push for Cairns to get direct [tourism] flights from that country.''

The Chinese market in Australia is potentially so big, tourism operators haven't enough adjectives for the wonders they believe it will unleash. But in Cairns - long vexed by the geographic isolation that separates it from major tourism air routes - the word they invariably use is ''salvation''.

The obstacle in establishing direct flights from China is that far north Queensland doesn't have the population to sustain return flights. But Gavin King, flush with an $8 million ''attracting aviation fund'' from the state government, reckons he willl make direct flights a reality within 12 months: ''The great example for how this could happen is Cathay Pacific, which has been bringing Chinese tourists to Cairns from Hong Kong for years, then returning with the bellies of their planes full of live local seafood. We're confident we can achieve the same thing with direct flights from China, returning with cargoes of seafood or agricultural products.''

Charles Woodward's CaPTA Group has been marketing its local tourist attractions in China since 1997. Raised on a cane farm in what is now part of Cairns' inner suburbs, Woodward was among a handful of entrepreneurs who helped open the region to international tourism. With Jim Wallace, founder and former owner of the Quicksilver Group (and now owner of Big Cat Green Island Reef Cruises), and a few others, Woodward formed a ''marketing mafia'' and toured the world promoting his birthplace and the Great Barrier Reef.

He opened his famous RainForestStation Nature Park at Kuranda in 1976, since bolstered by other nature-based attractions, including the Cairns Wildlife Dome atop the Cairns Casino. ''Most of our tourists were domestic until the Cairns International Airport opened in 1984,'' Woodward says. ''After that, we had the real boom phase when all the airlines used to run into Cairns [which ended after the pilots' strike] … then the Christopher Skase white-shoe wankers phase. Next came the Japanese market boom in the early '90s, which is when Daikyo came into Cairns and developed a lot of the major hotel infrastructure.'' (With economic problems of their own, even before last year's earthquake/tsunami, the Japanese no longer have a corporate presence in far north Queensland.)

"...We're now heading into the Chinese phase... the moment we get direct flights, the Chinese market here will take off like it did in the Japanese boom..."

''We're now heading into the Chinese phase,'' he says confidently. ''The moment we get direct flights, the Chinese market here will take off like it did in the Japanese boom.''

Even without direct flights, 70,000 tourists from mainland China are visiting Cairns annually, mostly via Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane. Thanks to his marketing legwork in China, 90 per cent of these arrivals dutifully turn up at RainForestStation. ''When they started coming about 12 years ago it was all government-sponsored tours, so a lot of them were factory managers and the like in Mao suits,'' he says. ''Now, as the country opens up, we're getting the whole range - from very sophisticated to very unsophisticated.''

Which sounds a bit like customer service in Cairns, where larger tourism operations are already schooling their staff in the nuances of being ''China-ready''.

View article source HERE

Peter Musso licensed real estate agent at Ray White Cairns Beaches selling property in Cairns' beautiful northern beach suburbs including Trinity Beach, Kewarra Beach, Clifton Beach, Palm Cove, Trinity Park, Smithfield, Yorkeys Knob, Holloways Beach, Machans Beach, Caravonica and surrounds.

Cairns Post: PNG investors eye Far North Queensland

PAPUA New Guinea residents are the largest foreign investors in the Far North, according to the latest figures from the Registrar of Titles.

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They bought commercial, residential and other property worth $4.5 million out of $16 million of foreign purchases in the last financial year.

Next on the list was the UK ($3.5 million), NZ ($2 million) and Japan ($1.9 million).

Other notable buyers were from the Czech Republic ($680,000), Greece ($530,000), Hong King ($491,470), Argentina ($490,000) and Malaysia ($394,300).

Hong Kong residents own the largest amount of land (1116ha) followed by Belgium (492ha), the UK (352ha), Japan (278ha) and China (91ha) while UK investors own the largest number of land parcels (257) followed by Japan (214), NZ (212) and PNG (101).

CBRE Cairns managing director Danny Betros said there had not been many large sales to PNG investors in recent times.

He said the last large sale was the $19 million three-storey office building at 120 Bunda St to a PNG consortium in July 2010. The building was bought by Mineral Resources Lihir Capital Ltd, a company that receives royalties from the $1 billion gold project on Lihir Island, and invests in property and other concerns on behalf of the community.

In May last year, a PNG family’s first foray into the Far North’s commercial property market was expected to be the start of further investments.

The Honale family bought the home of Channel 7 local news in Mulgrave Rd, Parramatta Park, for $3.2 million.

Mr Betros said there were about 12 groups representing PNG investors active in the Far North. He said the mining boom was sparking interest by PNG investors in the Far North as well as because of its close proximity.

It is understood a PNG consortium is also eyeing off one of the Cairns CBD’s largest office blocks, the Corporate Tower.

Greg Wood of Knight Frank Cairns said interest in property in Cairns had dropped off following the political stability in PNG.

Mr Wood said he expected the number of Australians and others working in the PNG resources sector to start buying mainly residential properties in Cairns for their families.

The Far North’s lifestyle, attractive property prices and the resource boom is drawing investors from PNG as well as Western Australia and Darwin who are snapping up prestige waterfront homes and land in the elite Bluewater estate.

The Cairns Post - Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Writer: Nick Dalton
Peter Musso licensed real estate agent at Ray White Cairns Beaches selling property in Cairns' beautiful northern beach suburbs including Trinity Beach, Kewarra Beach, Clifton Beach, Palm Cove, Trinity Park, Smithfield, Yorkeys Knob, Holloways Beach, Machans Beach, Caravonica and surrounds.

Cairns Post Articles - Jetstar & Virgin Ramp Up Flights

Within the past week the Cairns Post has reported on two major developments concerning the largest industry in Far North Queensland - Tourism. In relative terms, Tourism produces double the annual revenue turnover of agriculture, the second largest industry in the Far North (let me know if you might like further information regarding Cairns' industries via the 'Contact' page).

On April 1 Jetstar plans to add four extra flights from Melbourne per week to their schedule and Virgin Australia have followed with the announcement that they will be adding six extra flights from Brisbane per week to their own schedule.

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Ten extra domestic flights per week have the potential to add up to 100,000 visitors to Cairns each year. It is important to understand what this number of added arrivals means to the region - the graph opposite shows the number of tourism arrivals in Cairns throughout the past 10 years.

The trend level for domestic tourism arrivals in Cairns currently sits at approximately 260,000 visitors per year. That means that the new flights planned by major airlines within the past week have the potential to increase this number by more than almost 140%.

International arrivals remain on an unpredictable trend caused by unstable global economic conditions and the high Australian dollar making Cairns and Far North Queensland an expensive destination. Any improvement in tourist numbers however, either domestic or international, will be welcomed by local businesses in particular hospitality, accommodation and tour service operators.

Cairns Post report of Jetstars additional flights on Jan 24:

Jetstar adds extra Cairns to Melbourne flights

LOW-cost carrier Jetstar has added four more flights a week from Melbourne with the potential to bring an extra 37,440 passengers a year into Cairns.

The airline said with the extra four A320 flights a week there would now be 25 services from Melbourne.

The new flights are due to start on April 1.

The route is one of the fastest growing in Australia.

Last year, Jetstar passengers spent an estimated $112 million in the Far North.

The increased flights come as Jetstar bases its 13th A320 aircraft in Victoria.

Jetstar Group chief executive officer Bruce Buchanan said the additional capacity was part of the airline’s commitment to affordable domestic and overseas travel.

Read full article here

Report of Virgin Australia’s additional flights on Jan 27:

Extra Cairns flights, potential for extra 100,000 visitors

VIRGIN Australia is adding six extra flights between Cairns and Brisbane each week with the potential to bring more than 56,000 additional travellers a year to the Far North.

It follows Jetstar’s decision earlier this week to increase its services from Melbourne by four weekly flights.

The additional flights by the two airlines add nearly 100,000 seats a year from the southern capitals.

The extra Virgin return flights, from February 13, will be every day except Saturday, arriving at 1.20pm and departing for Brisbane at 1.50pm.

It takes the total number of Virgin Australia flights between Brisbane and Cairns each week to 80. The route is the 10th busiest in Australia with nearly 100,000 passengers a year.

Virgin says demand has sparked the extra flights.

Virgin Australia alliances, network and yield group executive Merren McArthur said the additional flights were part of an accelerated capacity growth plan for major corporate, resources sector and leisure routes.

Read full article here

Peter Musso - Ray White Cairns Beaches - Real estate agent selling property in Trinity Beach, Kewarra Beach, Clifton Beach, Palm Cove, Trinity Park, Smithfield, Yorkeys Knob, Holloways Beach, Machans Beach

STRONG AUSSIE DOLLAR TO SLOW ECONOMIC RECOVERY IN TROPICAL NORTH QUEENSLAND

With the Australian dollar recently reaching a 27-year high, not seen since the currency was freely floated in 1983, heavy costs are expected for local tourism and export industries.

Cairns was hit hard by the global financial crisis due to its high reliance on international tourism, and local businesses are still struggling to recover. Early indications of a strengthening economy in the north have just started to show yet these are now overshadowed by the sky-rocketing dollar bound to deter international expenditure in the region.

Interest rate rises are being viewed as too much too soon while local property markets are still finding their feet, and of longer term concern is the slowdown in residential development. It is the hope of local business leaders that the reserve bank decides to leave interest rates at current levels or lower for the time being with political figures calling for it to be allowed to free-fall like in the time of the Keating Government after the early 1990’s recession (Courier Mail Article).

Australian Tourism Export Council director Ron Livingston said Cairns had suffered because its tourism industry was predominantly based on leisure tourism, rather than business tourism. "If you add the fact that Australia has a high wage base compared to, say, Southeast Asia, we get crucified on hotel costs and tour costs," Mr Livingston said (The Australian Article).

Peter Musso - Ray White Cairns Beaches - Property agent selling real estate in Trinity Beach, Kewarra Beach, Clifton Beach, Palm Cove, Trinity Park, Smithfield, Yorkeys Knob, Holloways Beach, Machans Beach