This content was made in partnership with Google Trends
Google Trends data spanning more than two decades shows Sunshine Coast Airport has surged in search interest in recent years, overtaking weather as the most searched of the selected Sunshine Coast terms.
The shift offers a glimpse into how the region itself is changing. Once largely a domestic drive-to destination where visitors checked the forecast before making the trip north, the Sunshine Coast is increasingly becoming a connected tourism and business hub, with people searching not just for what awaits them, but how they can get in and out.
The distinction is important: Google Trends measures relative search interest rather than the number of searches, and the chart compares search terms and topics using different measurement methods. But the direction of travel is striking.
Where the Coast was once a place people searched about, it is increasingly becoming a place people search through.
Visit Sunshine Coast CEO Matt Stoeckel believes the rise reflects the airport’s growing profile, particularly as major investment and new services reshape the region’s connectivity.
“It’s great to see growing interest in Sunshine Coast Airport, particularly at a time when the $170 million terminal redevelopment is underway and new services like Jetstar’s Singapore to the Sunshine Coast via Bali flight are opening up more ways for visitors to reach our region,” Mr Stoeckel said.
From driveway destination to transport hub
The change represents a significant shift for a region historically dominated by the domestic drive market.
For many Queensland visitors, getting to the Sunshine Coast has traditionally meant getting in the car and travelling north on the Bruce Highway.
But the Coast’s transport landscape is becoming more connected and more complicated.
The airport’s 2020 runway upgrade allowed larger aircraft to operate directly to more destinations, while the airport was declared a Priority Development Area in 2023.
Construction on the $170 million terminal redevelopment began in October 2025, with the project set to almost double the terminal footprint, increase departure gates from five to seven and triple the departure lounge.
In March this year, Jetstar launched the first direct Sunshine Coast service to Bali, with passengers able to continue on the same aircraft to Singapore.
The service provides the region with its first direct connection to Southeast Asia and access to more than 100 onward destinations from Singapore.
Air New Zealand has also increased its 2026 Auckland capacity, with the seasonal service starting three weeks earlier than last year.
Suddenly, searches for the airport are no longer simply about catching a flight. They can mean checking a departure time, comparing routes, organising a business trip, finding an international connection or working out how to get visitors home.
Sunshine Coast Airport CEO Chris Mills said its growing role goes well beyond leisure travel.
“Sunshine Coast Airport attracts residents, business travellers, visiting friends and relatives, airline customers and investors,” Mr Mills said.
“The Sunshine Coast continues to attract visitors, but they’re increasingly spread across the region rather than concentrated in one destination. Outbound demand continues to grow as the population expands and becomes more connected to Sydney, Melbourne and overseas markets.”
While leisure travel remains the largest segment, Mr Mills said business travel was growing strongly and had reached its highest share in the airport’s latest passenger research. Local residents now account for almost 43 per cent of passengers, he said.
This suggests the airport is increasingly being used not just by people coming to the Sunshine Coast, but by people who live and work here.
Searching with intent
The Google Trends data also points to another change: people may no longer need to search broadly for the Sunshine Coast itself. The destination is established.
Instead of asking Google what the Coast has to offer, travellers may already know where they want to go and are searching for the logistics of getting there. This helps explain why terms such as accommodation appear less dominant in the recent data, even as visitor numbers continue to grow.
Mr Stoeckel said Visit Sunshine Coast had recorded a record year of website visits and that its own data showed visitor numbers increasing year-on-year this calendar year.
“We’ve had a record year of visitors to our website, which is a really positive indicator of people’s intent to travel to the Sunshine Coast,” he said.
It means the decline in accommodation-related search interest should not necessarily be read as declining tourism. It may instead reflect a more targeted traveller who already knows the destination and is further along the booking journey.
“Strong aviation connectivity is incredibly important for tourism, particularly in helping us attract more interstate and international visitors to the Sunshine Coast.
“Those visitors stay in our accommodation, experience our attractions, eat in our restaurants and support tourism businesses right across the region.”
A region in motion
The airport’s growth is also beginning to change what the Coast means economically.
Passenger numbers reached 1.8 million in the 2025-26 financial year, 9.7 per cent higher than the previous year and 86 per cent higher than a decade ago.
The airport’s Gateway Precinct is planned to add hotel, retail, commercial and industrial opportunities around the terminal, further embedding aviation into the region’s economic infrastructure.
Mr Mills said the development would strengthen the airport’s role as an economic driver and create employment and services for passengers, workers, visitors and the wider community.
“Alongside that, the Gateway Precinct offers hotel, retail, commercial and industrial opportunities to market, strengthening the airport’s role as an economic driver for the region, in one of the Coast’s fastest growing locations,” he said.
“This means more employment opportunities for locals and the creation of services that will benefit passengers, airport workers, visitors and the wider community.”
For the Sunshine Coast, that could mark a fundamental transition.
The changing search trends may ultimately tell a bigger story than what people are typing into Google.
They reflect a Sunshine Coast that is becoming less passive and more connected, a place no longer simply waiting for visitors to arrive when the weather is right, but increasingly plugged into the movement of people, business and tourism across Australia and overseas.
With the airport expanding, international connections growing and more locals using it to travel beyond the region, the Sunshine Coast’s relationship with its airport is changing too.
For a region once defined by its beaches, hinterland and blue skies, perhaps the most telling sign of change is that people are now looking beyond the sky and towards the runway.
This content is part of a paid partnership with Google to promote Google Trends.