Long regarded as something that created flooding chaos every few years, the Brisbane River has been highlighted by Frommers as a sight to see and a world class asset.

Brisbane has never enjoyed the physical beauty of places like Sydney or Melbourne’s European charms and the city’s tourism is driven by cultural, business and sporting events. Not many travel guides have ever highlighted the river, but then not many have ever listed Brisbane, either.

However, the Olympics seems to be a way of changing opinions and since Brisbane and the south east was named as the host for 2032, attitudes have changed.

Frommers said Brisbane had long been regarded as an uneventful town which was divided by the river that was once an inconvenience but now something else entirely.

It follows a listing recently from Time which named Brisbane as one of the great destinations of 2023.

The Calile Hotel was also recently named as one of the world’s best hotels and Brisbane had something of a tourism boom in the last financial year with research showing 866,000 holiday makers visited the city in the June 30 year, an increase of almost 130 per cent on the pandemic affected 2022.

Visitor spending in Brisbane hit a record $6.9 billion for the year, well up from the 2019 levels for the city. International tourism was still down significantly on 2019.

Also on the Frommers list were Saville, Spain; Panama City;  Kentucky; Guanajuato, Mexico; and the Cook Islands.

“Brisbane has learned how to conquer that natural obstacle and convert the river into a world-class asset, devising new ways to go over, under and around the waterway and show it off at new entertainment districts with dazzling views,” Frommers said.

It cited the Queen’s Wharf development, South Bank and Howard Smith Wharves as sites and tourism assets that used the river as a backdrop while the Cross River Rail will unite the city’s transport options.

“Brisbane’s reputation as a generic Aussie backwater is over. It belongs to the world now,” Frommers said.

Brisbane Airport also said it was gearing up for a flurry of new route launches in the coming month.

New services, airlines adding additional flights to existing routes and the upgrading of aircraft capacity will deliver an extra 1.3 million international seats in and out of Brisbane in the next 12 months.

BAC said at the international terminal, September recovery was at 81 per cent of pre-Covid19 capacity.  The launch of 7 new routes and expansion of others is forecast to see international recovery grow to 90 per cent in December.

Upcoming new services were Qantas’s three services a week to Honiara (Solomon Islands) and seven services a  week to Wellington New Zealand, both commencing on October 29.

On the same day, United Airlines would increase its San Francisco service to daily and on October 30, Jetstar starts five services a week to Tokyo (Narita) and Rex would start seven services a  week to Adelaide.

On November 1, China Eastern starts three services a week from Shanghai, rising to seasonal daily from 11 December  and on November 18, China Southern commences four services a week from Guangzhou, rising to seasonal daily from 11 December.

On December 1, United Airlines starts four services a week from Los Angeles.