Business
28 November, 2021
Cairns’ Local Industry Reliance On Regions
ACCORDING to figures provided by Cairns Regional Council, Tableland’s residents have spent more than $103 million in Cairns in the period of August 2020 to September of 2021.
In the same period, a total of $37.8 million have entered the Tablelands economy, with Atherton ($14.4 million) and Mareeba ($12.9 million) taking up the most significant percentages.
The data was collected from the application Spendmapp which takes transaction data from credit and debit cards around Australia and then weights this for non-card transactions.
President of Cairns Chamber of Commerce Sally Mlikota said the data shows a significant reliance on the regions.
“The Cairns footprint relies very much, particularly with the borders shut, on the cash injection coming from the greater region of Far North Queensland,” Ms Mlikota said.
“By encouraging people in the Tablelands to travel to Cairns, the money ripples through the community and it keeps small businesses, large businesses, and the tourism industry going because the money is spent within the Far North region.”
Chairman of Advance Cairns, an independent organisation for advocacy and economic development for Tropical North Queensland, Nick Trompf, agreed with Ms Mlikota. He said the figures highlight the integrated relationship between Cairns and the Tablelands.
“It indicates we are an integrated region with Cairns being the main area; however, it also shows how important the regions are to Cairns. The economy doesn’t rely only on locals but also relies a lot on the regions,” Mr Trompf said. According to Ms Mlikota, COVID-19 has played an important role in the amount of money flowing from Cairns to the Tablelands.
“People who live around Cairns visit regional areas such as Atherton, Kuranda, Mareeba. That means that people in Cairns, instead of spending their money travelling to Europe, may be spending their money on small localised regional trips,” she said.
“And vice versa if you’re living in some of the major towns within the regional area, you can’t go anywhere else, so you’re coming to Cairns, and you’re benefitting from both the retail and the tourism sector, so you’re spending your money here.”
Mr Trompf said that although there was not enough data to confirm the impacts of COVID-19 in the amount of money spent in Cairns from the Tablelands, it was a reasonable assumption.
“It would be fair to assume that because of COVID, Tablelanders would spend locally. The Tablelands have a strong agricultural industry, and farmers would upgrade their equipment in Cairns and Cairns would benefit from that,” he said.
For Mr Trompf the reopening of borders will be crucial in shifting Cairns’ economy. “Although the money from Tablelanders is very welcomed, spending is dwarfed by the tourism we had before COVID, with the resurgence of national and international tourism, by next year we expect to see big recovery and improvement to Cairns’ economy,” he said.
