Tourism’s big bucks
Visitors to the region on the rise
DATA reveals that a whopping $712 million, three times the national growth, has been brought into the region as a result of visitors coming to the Darling Downs from interstate and overseas.
The number of tourists coming from interstate rose to 361,000. The number of visitors who stayed overnight increased to 1.9 million.
TOURISM Research Australia data released yesterday shows visitor spending in the Southern Queensland Country region increased by almost 20% in the past financial year.
Travellers injected $712.7 million into the local economy, up 19.6 per cent over the previous year, which is about three times the national tourism expenditure growth.
The number of overnight visitors rose 3.5% to 1.9 million.
Southern Queensland Country Tourism CEO Mary-Clare Power said there was particularly strong growth in interstate visitation figures, which increased by 18.9% to 361,000.
“In the year to June, the level of interstate holiday visitation to our region increased by 7.6% and the number of interstate travellers visiting family and friends rose by 8.2%,” Ms Power said.
“The TRA figures also identify a significant increase of 41% in interstate business travel.
“While this is pleasing, that uplift is off a very low base post resources sector downturn and regularly fluctuates in line with market forces.
“The number of intrastate visitors coming to see friends and relatives also increased by 6%.”
Ms Power said the most pleasing aspect of the TRA data was the three-year trend which identified total visitation was up by 5.7% and tourism spending had increased on average by 9.9%.
“Southern Queensland Country is starting to reap the benefits of the hard work we began with our partners almost four years ago now,” Ms Power said.
“The day-tripper market for example has increased 8.8% across the past three years, injecting over $428 million into local business.
“Our tourism product is resonating with the audiences we are targeting through our marketing campaigns and when people arrive in our region their spending habits tell us they are enjoying the experience.
“We are seeing definite return on investment for initiatives like our autumn
campaign which help to deliver a consistent flow of visitors in traditionally softer periods.”