Business travel leads record year for Queensland tourism

Double digit growth in business travel has helped produce another record breaking year for domestic visitation to Queensland.

The latest Tourism Research Australia data to the year ending June 2017 showed domestic overnight visitor expenditure in Queensland increased 5.5 per cent to $15.4 billion, while domestic visitor numbers grew 6.2 per cent to a record high of 21.5 million.

Tourism and Major Events Minister Kate Jones said Australian travellers injected billions of dollars into the state’s economy with more visitors choosing to stay longer.

“Queensland continues to grow its national visitor numbers, hitting record highs for visitor spend and visitors’ stay in the past year and injecting billions of dollars into our economy,” Ms Jones said.

“Business travel to Queensland experienced record growth, increasing 16.7 per cent to 4.8 million visitors.

“We know that Australians love to come to Queensland on holiday and discover the unique and authentic experiences that our beautiful state has to offer.

“We are also seeing millions of Australians come to Queensland to carry out business riding high on our economic success.”

Ms Jones said the figures revealed positive signs for Queensland’s tourism regions with major gains in overnight visitor expenditure.

“Brisbane (15.5%), the Gold Coast (4.1%), Fraser Coast (21%), Southern Queensland Country (19.6 %), Southern Great Barrier Reef (14%), Mackay (30.3%), Whitsundays (6.4%) and Queensland’s Outback (10.4%) all saw major gains in visitor expenditure,” she said.

“For the Whitsundays, it shows the efforts of the local community following TC Debbie, the leadership of Mayor Andrew Wilcox and Whitsundays Tourism CEO Craig Turner and the marketing support we put in place immediately after the cyclone has helped keep visitors coming to the region.

“Visiting friends and family visitation also increased 7.4 per cent to a record high of 7.4 million.

“We are determined to grow the national market because we know domestic tourists play a vital role in building a strong economy.

“That’s why, through Tourism and Events Queensland, we’ve made our goal to ‘inspire the world to experience the best address on earth’, whether it is for a short visit or a longer stay.” The latest National Visitor Survey (NVS) results are available on the Tourism Research Australia website at www.tra.gov.au

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