Japanese visitors to Tropical North Queensland reached 100,000 in 2025-26 with one in every three Japanese holiday visitors arriving in Australia coming to Cairns and 71% of Queensland’s Japanese holiday makers visiting our destination. This positive news that we have reached our target for Japan shows our region is a key national player in the Japanese market.
Strengthening our bonds with Japan is always a priority and last month I returned from a VIP delegation to Tokyo led by Tourism and Events Queensland CEO Craig Davidson. Our group included the Regional Tourism Organisations, Cairns, Gold Coast and Brisbane Airports to meet with airline and distribution partners. The visit coincided with Tourism Expo Japan where we hosted a dedicated Queensland seminar for 50 key trade and media partners.
The Cairns & Great Barrier Reef region continues to account for more than half the total visitors sent to Australia by Japan’s two major travel agents. We know the Japanese love Tropical North Queensland, but that doesn’t guarantee visitation. Our greatest success comes from our members joining TTNQ in our marketing activities to work as Team Cairns.
Last financial year TTNQ provided destination training for 1193 Japanese travel agents and in January we conducted a trade mission in partnership with Experience Gold Coast for our members. Next January we ae taking 15 members on a TTNQ-led mission to Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.
In between trade missions we have undertaken consumer events such as the Tokyo Marine Diving Fair and engaged with media and influencers, as well as bringing trade into region to experience Tropical North Queensland. It is very common for famil trip participants to return to our region on a private trip with family and friends after falling in love with the destination and the people.
We are the only Australian regional tourism body with dedicated Japanese language accounts on X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube and have a Japanese-language website with blogs. This strong Japanese language presence helps to drive visitation.
Our region’s connections with Japan stretch back close to 130 years and they were the first international tour groups to arrive in Cairns in 1979 on Air Niugini’s services. Today our community is home to more than 4000 of the Japanese diaspora and Japan is our second biggest international market behind the USA.
The competition is intense with just 18% of Japanese people holding a passport meaning only 14.7 million Japanese residents travel overseas each year compared to 12.4 million Australians. Hawaii seemed to be everywhere at the Japan Travel Expo and countries like India, Sri Lanka and Tahiti are making a sizeable investment in the Japanese market.
Tourism and Events Queensland, Tourism Australia, our airline and campaign partners, and media have also supported TTNQ in growing the Japanese market and we thank them. We especially thank the dedicated members who work with us in the Japanese market – we couldn’t do it without you.
Cheers,
Mark Olsen
Chief Executive Officer