Tourism figures a boost for region
THE CEO of Southern Queensland Country Tourism said the industry could start to shed its “soft” tag thanks to new figures.
More than 9400 people were employed by the tourism sector in the Southern Queensland Country region in the 2016-17 financial year – a jump of 4.7 per cent.
The data, gathered from the Tourism Research Australia Satellite Account and published by the State Government, also found tourism contributed $920 million to the region’s economy.
Southern Queensland Country Tourism CEO MaryClare Power said the positive data showed the industry was a real contributor.
“Many people have looked at tourism as a soft industry, and this is changing that,” she said.
“If you take that out of the economy, it has an effect across most businesses in the region.
“It’s not just about attractions – this goes into retail, hospitality. It adds to the buoyant economy.”
The statistics back up what has been a run of positive figures for the tourism organisation in 2018.
More than 1.4 million domestic leisure tourists visited here in March 2018, which included a 20 per cent rise in holiday visitors from the previous year.
Tourism Minister Kate Jones said she wanted to keep working on developing the sector with Toowoomba operators.
“This data is proof that we’re on the right track. But I know we can create more jobs in this sector over the next few years,” she said.