MORE INTERNATIONAL VISITORS HEADING TO WHITSUNDAYS

More international tourists are staying longer in the Whitsundays, new figures show.

Tourism Minister Margaret Keech said the latest International Visitor Survey (IVS) figures showed a 3 per cent increase in visitors to the region and visitor nights up by 13 per cent in the past year.

There were 213,620 visitors to the Whitsundays up to December 2006, up from 208,247 the previous year, she said.

“The Whitsundays is continuing to cement its reputation worldwide as a premier holiday destination,” Mrs Keech said.

“International visitors to the Whitsundays are almost all holidaymakers, with 96 per cent of the tourists from overseas visiting for leisure purposes.

“And with the recent launch of the Whitsundays’ stunning 74 Islands Out of the Blue campaign, who knows where these figures will go in the next 12 months!”

Mrs Keech said international visitor growth was driven by strong increases from the important German and United Kingdom markets.

“The Whitsundays is hugely popular with the European market,” she said.

“Visitors from the United Kingdom represented one third of international holidaymakers to the region, while another 12 per cent were from Germany.

“The region is also increasingly being known as a backpacker haven.

“These new figures show that 67 per cent of visitors classed themselves as backpackers, up 13 per cent from last year.”

Mrs Keech said the great results were a testament to the hard work being done by Tourism Queensland, Tourism Whitsundays and the industry.

“Tourism injected $103 million into the Whitsundays’ economy in the last calendar year, and it is an excellent result to see such strong figures continuing to bolster Whitsunday tourism,” she said.

“More importantly this equals real economic returns and more job opportunities for Queensland communities.”

Media Contacts: Jo Gibbons 3224 2007 or David Smith 3225 1005