As Brisbane prepares to host the first State of Origin game at Suncorp Stadium tomorrow, a peak tourism body has warned the state has fallen behind to meet the accommodation demands of the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Currently, there are 46,000 hotel rooms in south-east Queensland, compared to 133,000 in Paris and 120,000 in 2028 host city Los Angeles.
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Queensland Tourism Industry Council said the state’s hotel room inventory is expected to grow to 51,000 by 2030, but that’s short of what’s required.
“Our infrastructure is not keeping pace,” QTIC chief executive Natassia Wheeler said.
“Queensland is attracting more visitors, more often, for longer stays. But our ability to host them is at breaking point. Hotel capacity, transport links, and tourism infrastructure must expand now to match our ambitions for 2032 and beyond.”
QTIC’s warning arrived only weeks after a record Magic Round event in Brisbane at the start of May.
The weekend attracted 48,000 interstate visitors and saw average hotel occupancy hover around 80 per cent, according to CoStar data.
Figures from the start of last week show hotel occupancy in Brisbane for the State of Origin at 77 per cent.
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