Brisbane 12 June 2013. Queensland’s popularity as Australia’s holiday State continues to grow with visitors staying longer and spending more than anywhere else in the country, according to new figures released today.
Minister for Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games Jann Stuckey said Tourism Research Australia’s latest National Visitor Survey showed good growth in the number of Australians holidaying in the State in the year to March 2013.
“Almost eight million Australians holidayed in Queensland during the year, spending more than 37.5 million nights (or an average 4.7 nights) and $6.5 billion on visits to the State,” Ms Stuckey said.
“That’s an increase of seven per cent for holiday visitors, eight per cent for nights and a four per cent increase in spending compared with the previous year; results which outshine other parts of the country.”
Other results include:
* Interstate holidaymakers increased 10 per cent to 2.5 million, boosted by travel from the State’s key markets of Sydney and Melbourne.
* More than 5.4 million Queenslanders also holidayed at home during the year which is a six per cent increase.
* Domestic holiday day travel grew strongly as well with trips up 16 per cent to 18.8 million.
* Overall travel to Queensland, including business travellers, holidaymakers and those visiting friends and relatives, remained stable with 18 million Australians spending 76 million nights and almost $14 billion.
“These results show that the green shoots of recovery that we have been talking about are continuing to grow,” she said
Ms Stuckey said the positive results were a testament to the impact of the heightened marketing activity recently implemented by Tourism and Events Queensland (TEQ).
“In partnership with the State’s regional tourism organisations, TEQ developed a series of targeted campaigns promoting destinations across the State such as Outback Eventures, ‘1 Day in Paradise’ in Tropical North Queensland, ‘make the most of the moment’ on the Sunshine Coast, ‘and Action’ on the Gold Coast and ‘Where great begins’ for the Southern Great Barrier Reef” she said.
“It is especially pleasing to see such a strong performance considering the tough start to the year the industry faced in the wake of ex-tropical Cyclone Oswald.
“The results also demonstrate the importance of providing immediate support to Queensland’s tourism industry following wet weather events with campaigns such as Australia Day II encouraging Australians to holiday in the State.
“The survey reaffirms this recovery with the number of Australians holidaying in Queensland in the March quarter increasing 17 per cent compared with the same time in the previous year.
Ms Stuckey said the major tourism regions of the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Tropical North
Queensland had all shown good holiday results during the period.
“The Gold Coast was the standout, with holidaymakers up 19 per cent and overall visitor expenditure up 13 per cent,” she said.
“The number of holiday visitors also increased to Brisbane (up 6% to 1.4 million), Sunshine Coast (up 13% to 1.8 million) and Tropical North Queensland (up 2% to 864,000).”
Holiday travel to the Whitsundays weakened slightly, however the number of interstate holidaymakers increased to 132,000.
National Visitor Survey information for Queensland regions can be found at www.tq.com.au/research
