Brisbane plans more cruise ship terminals to take advantage of a 30 per cent rise in international tourists as its launches its plans to become a "mid-sized Southeast Asian hub" by 2022.
The new state government recently ruled out the Gold Coast's Broadwater as a potential cruise-ship terminal.
One of the key recommendations is for Brisbane to become a "mid-sized Asia Pacific hub that is a leader in defining and refining a new Asia Pacific culture and identity".
Brisbane already hosts the Asia Pacific Film Festival and the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk will on Tuesday morning receive the recommendations from the city's economic development team, chaired by Brisbane Marketing's chairman, Ian Klug.
They have had the job of producing Brisbane's New World City Action Plan for 2022 and creating the steps to get there.
Their key recommendations
- Pursue cruise ship terminal opportunities to attract more cruise ships and passengers and leverage Brisbane's attractions via the river and Moreton Bay;
- Have a chief economist employed by the Council of Mayors; which is bidding for the 2028 Olympic Games and leverage the 2018 Commonwealth Games
- Explore a new tourism funding model so Brisbane can increase visitation for the tourism and accommodation sector through additional conventions;
- Get Brisbane into the top 50 destinations for international conferences, with total delegate days across all business events increasing to 600,000 per year;
- Have Brisbane among the world's top 100 most visited cities.
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk within the plan says Brisbane has momentum since hosting the G20 in November 2014, which he has asked the city's planners to develop.
"Brisbane's highly successful hosting of the G20 Leaders' Summit was a defining moment for our city," Cr Quirk said.
"We took centre stage and showed the world what we were capable of," he said.
The plan identifies what it believes to Brisbane's growth sectors, targeting tourism, small "start-up" businesses, education and agriculture.
Brisbane's eight growth sectors towards 2022:
- Knowledge-based and Corporate Services
- Accommodation and Visitor Economy
- Higher and International Education
- Energy and Resources
- Creative and Digital
- Property Development and Construction
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Food and Agribusiness
Part of its plan is to map Brisbane's key districts by industry clusters, "to identify and prioritise trends and opportunities."
Brisbane aims to host 12 "drawcard" events per year to lure more tourists and overseas businesses to the region.
What the statistics show:
- Brisbane's economy increased in real terms by more than 60 per cent from $81.6b in 2000-01 to $130b in 2010-2011;
- It contributed almost half (48 per cent) of Queensland's economic output. (Source: Queensland Government Statistician's Office, Experimental Estimates of Gross Regional Product, 2000-01, 2006-07 and 2010-11)
- Brisbane's conventions business is growing. In 2014, visitor expenditure from both domestic and international visitors in Brisbane was around $4.75b.
- International visitation, which accounts for over 30 per cent of total tourism expenditure, has been growing strongly, recording 912,000 visitors in 2011 and rising to 997,000 visitors in 2014 (Source: Tourism Research Australia, National Visitor Survey and International Visitor Survey, September 2011 and 2014).
