BRISBANE
Right: The World
Science Festival
in Brisbane.
Above: South Bank.
Dream start
Brisbane is hosting Dreamtime for the first time this year, signalling the city’s strong appetite to grab a bigger
slice of the lucrative international incentive market, writes Sheridan Randall.
“The notion of incentives for Brisbane isn’t
new, we just haven’t driven it,” says Rob
Nelson, Brisbane Convention Bureau’s
general manager. Things are changing
though, with Brisbane now firmly in the
incentive driving seat and hitting the gas
hard. A surge of new hotel infrastructure
and eye-popping developments mean
that Brisbane is ready to pull the trigger
on attracting big incentive groups, with
Dreamtime 2017 the perfect opportunity to
showcase the city to new overseas markets.
“The decision to be more proactive in this
space follows in the footsteps of other
Australian destinations,” says Nelson.
“We all look at each other to see what we
are doing, and it is well publicised how
well Sydney and particularly the Gold
Coast have been in getting some really big
numbers from key markets. What we hear
is that there is still a very strong interest
in Australia combined with an appetite for
new locations.”
The three main drivers for Brisbane’s push
are more hotel rooms, new hotel brands
coming online, some big infrastructure
22 Convention & Incentive Marketing, Issue 2, 2017 www.cimmagazine.com
projects such as the $3 billion-plus Queens
Wharf development in the western CBD and
an increase in air access. Brisbane Airport
is being transformed with a new precinct
and a runway expansion that will see it offer
greater capacity than Singapore’s Changi
Airport when it’s finished in 2020.
Projects such as Queens Wharf, which will
add 11,000 new hotel rooms including a Ritz
Carlton, a bridge connecting it to the South
Bank precinct and capacity for 60,000 people
in open public space, mean Brisbane will
have the product to support larger incentive