Brisbane welcomes direct flights from Japan

Queensland is preparing to welcome an extra 108,000 international visitors each year with the first direct flights from Japan since 2010 touching down in Brisbane.

Tourism Minister Kate Jones joined Qantas and local tourism officials at Brisbane’s International Airport this morning to celebrate the arrival of the Qantas flight.

“The daily service opens the skies for an extra 108,000 travellers to visit Queensland each year and has the potential to inject up to $64 million into the economy,” Ms Jones said.

“This is an important aviation milestone for Queensland as it provides a significant opportunity to grow capacity from one of the state’s key international visitor markets.

“Almost 155,000 Japanese travellers visited Queensland in the year to March 2015, spending more than $305 million on visits.”

Ms Jones said Tourism and Events Queensland had worked in partnership with Qantas, Tourism Australia and regional tourism organisations, Brisbane Marketing and Gold Coast Tourism to promote the new route.

“A major marketing effort featuring print, digital and outdoor ads was launched in May promoting holiday packages to Queensland,” she said.

“TEQ also led a trade mission to Japan in June to engage with Japanese travel wholesalers, agents and media to increase awareness of the new route.

“TEQ will host a VIP delegation of tourism trade officials from Japan on a visit to Queensland this month providing an opportunity for participants to experience tourism attractions in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast first-hand.”

Qantas International CEO Gareth Evans said the airline was excited to be offering its customers daily direct flights from Brisbane to Tokyo.

“Our new direct service is a win for tourism because it makes it even easier for Japanese travellers to explore all that Queensland has to offer. It’s also great news for Brisbane customers wanting to explore Japan,” Mr Evans said.

BAC CEO and Managing Director Julieanne Alroe praised Qantas for the new service saying it would help to reinvigorate a long and valuable relationship between the two countries.

“Japan and Queensland have an incredibly strong tie; sharing excellent and well established tourism and business relationships. Japan is Queensland’s second biggest trading partner and Queensland remains the highest aspirational Australian destination for Japanese travellers,” Ms Alroe said.

“The return of a full service carrier direct to Japan is a win for travellers, for business, for Queensland and for the economy.

“I’d like to congratulate Qantas on this significant launch and thank the team for their ongoing commitment to Brisbane and Queensland, along with support received from the Australian and Japanese Business Chamber of Commerce and other industry partners.

“We look forward to seeing the success of this service leading to more international destinations from Brisbane by Qantas.”