DOMESTIC HOLIDAYMAKERS ARE WHERE ELSE BUT QUEENSLAND

Australian tourists are proving there’s nowhere else but Queensland whether it’s for work or play, says Tourism Minister Margaret Keech.

Mrs Keech said the latest National Visitor Survey results showed strong increases in holiday and business travel to Queensland from visitors around the nation.

“Over the past three years, Queensland has consistently outperformed the nation in domestic visitor growth,” she said.

“Particularly impressive was the growth in the holiday market last year, with visitation increasing by 10.5 per cent, outperforming the national holiday visitor growth rate of 6.9 per cent.

“Holiday market expenditure in Queensland also grew significantly by 8.9 per cent to $5.98 billion.

“Queensland continues to prove it’s the place to do business with the business tourism market increasing from December 2005, up 5.1 per cent and bettering the national growth rate of 1.9 per cent.

“Overall, domestic overnight visitation to Queensland grew 4.3 per cent, with 17.1 million people visiting the state, up from 16.4 million the previous year.

“Expenditure increased by 2.2 per cent to $9.72 billion, excluding airfares and long distance transport costs.”

Mrs Keech said increases in expenditure across the regions reinforced tourism’s importance in generating economic growth and employment.

“According to Tourism Research Australia, Queensland has six of the top 20 domestic tourism expenditure regions in Australia, including the Gold Coast and Brisbane in the top five,” she said.

“Tropical North Queensland, the SunshineCoast, the Whitsundays and Northern Queensland were the other regions among the top 20.

“Tourism is the lifeblood of many Queensland communities and the strong expenditure increases are important to these local economies.

“The Beattie Government is dedicated to working with regional tourism organisations and industry in developing tourism products and marketing initiatives as well as economic and employment opportunities for Queensland.

“Last year, these partnerships helped inject more than $12.56 billion (excluding airfares and long distance transport costs) in overnight and day expenditure from domestic tourism into the State’s economy.”

Mrs Keech said the strong results were a testament to the hard work of the Queensland tourism industry, particularly in the face of increased fuel prices and interest rate rises.

“The Queensland tourism industry has faced significant challenges over the past year, but through strong partnerships tourism opportunities and economic returns have continued to grow,” she said.

“The Beattie Government will continue to support and work with the tourism industry in driving this important domestic visitation growth.

“In February we launched the new ‘Where Else But Queensland’ promotional campaign which is already showing good results.

“A series of special grants have also been provided to Queensland’s tourism regions to help them implement the Queensland Tourism Strategy.”

Media Contact: Jo Gibbons 3224 2007