As our economy emerges from the shockwaves of the global financial crisis, experts are turning their attention on how to diversify from the Far North’s over-reliance on tourism. While views are varied on how to build a strong and resilient region, the focus is on a multitude of opportunities.
“We need to recognize that tourism is no longer the sunrise industry it once was,” economist Bill Cummings says. “There is no doubt that it has been an important growth factor for the region, but it’s not absolutely dominant.”
While tourism experienced a huge growth in the 80’s and 90’s, the recent volatile international market meant a huge slump for Far North Queensland. “The world has changed in the last decade,” Bill Cummings explains. “There has been a rapid industrialization in China and India on a scale we haven’t seen since the early 1900’s. This is what is causing a rapid demand for commodities, especially materials and resources and Australia is benefiting from that, but its translating as a challenge for tourism because its putting the dollar up and making us less competitive. We must recognize that we are in that world and we need to adapt.”
Bill maintains that our primary economic role is that of being a regional servicing and capital- a transport, distribution and manufacturing, administration and service hub. As such, we are in an excellent position to supply workforce and other services as mining expands. “The region’s economy was founded on mining in the late 1800’s until agriculture got going, but it’s coming back, so we need to look for infrastructure such as ports, roads and rails, so we can move commodities.”
The Far North is also the largest agricultural region in northern Australia with a gross value of production about the same size as Tasmania. In fact it was agriculture that underpinned the regions expansion right up until the 1970’s. And while the tourism sector has come trough to exceed the value of the agricultural sector, the rural industry has been far from stagnant. As such agriculture is one of those ‘base’ industries that forms the foundation upon which the regional economy is built. “We have superior growing conditions in Far North Queensland,” Bill Cummings adds.
“The many different microclimates and combination of altitude, rainfall and soil types means we can grow an incredibly diverse range of crops in the region.” As such the regions large, underutilized water resources are of increasing interest for meeting national demand for agricultural products against a background of concerns about the impact of climate change.
Further afield, the rapid growth in the mining industry in Papua New Guinea means a host of opportunities for Far North Queensland’s businesses and service providers. “It’s important to have a few irons in the fire,” Cairns Chamber of Commerce President Jeremy Blockey, says. “I would say the opportunities are in the labour, wholesale and manufacturing sector. There is a serious business in the supply of construction and other materials for mining, so it’s paramount we have a direct shipping service to the region.” Australia as a nation is well suited to supply PNG. Not only do we have close government relations, but there is a huge demand in PNG for added skills. “There are some great opportunities for local teaching organizations to provide training,” Jeremy adds.
Experts agree that there are good prospects of increasing our economy with a host of services and resources such as fishing, aviation, agriculture, bio-fuels and even renewable energies.
However while other activities earning income from outside the region has been exceeding tourism by a ratio of about 60 to 40, Ayre Group consultant, Bill Calderwood is certain that there are still opportunities for ongoing growth in tourism. “Tourism will drive this economy for a long while yet, he declares. “But it’s important to look at new activities such as study and medical tourism, sports, meetings and conferences as well as a support structure for training elite athletes. We already have a world class tennis centre, hockey field and cricket pitch, but we could certainly do with developing good mountain bike tracks.”
In many ways the region is still an underdeveloped frontier. So whether we focus in on our natural wealth, servicing capacity, agriculture or non-leisure tourists, the important thing is to recognise new growth opportunities and not depend on one monolithic market. One thing is for certain, we need to provide a buffer against the regions vulnerability to national and economic variables and as Bill Cummings says, recognise that we are in a changing world.
