DOMESTIC TOURISM ON THE RISE IN TROPICAL NORTH QUEENSLAND

More domestic visitors are heading to Tropical North Queensland with their wallets open according to the latest National Visitor Survey, Tourism Minister Margaret Keech said today.

Mrs Keech said domestic tourists spent an extra $200 million in Tropical North Queensland in the year ending March 2007.

“This represents a fantastic 15.2 per cent increase in money spent on domestic tourism, making it a more than $1.5 billion industry for Tropical North Queensland,” she said.

“Tropical North Queensland is in the top 10 largest domestic tourism destinations in Australia, ranking eighth.

“The money spent was thanks to the 1.5 million domestic visitors who spent more than 7.3 million nights in the Tropical North.

“This represents a 14.8 per cent increase in the number of domestic visitors and a 3.8 per cent increase in visitor nights to Tropical North Queensland.

“The strongest interstate market growth was seen out of New South Wales with a 19.6 per cent increase.”

Mrs Keech said the strong 4.3 per cent growth from the holiday market over the past year saw more than 800,000 interstate residents visiting North Queensland specifically for a holiday.

“What is particularly great about the latest results is the amazing increase in Queensland residents discovering their own backyard,” she said.

“Queenslanders holidaying in Tropical North Queensland increased by 24 per cent.”

Mrs Keech said interstate residents were definitely ‘changing their latitude’ and heading to Tropical North Queensland.

“The Beattie Government has been working closely with Tourism Tropical North Queensland to market and develop the region’s tourism offering for domestic visitors,” she said.

“This strong partnership and hard work is clearly paying off and I am sure we will only continue to see growth in domestic tourism in the future.

“I congratulate the local tourism industry on embracing the new ‘Change your Latitude’ brand with such pride and dedication.”

Tropical North Queensland CEO Rob Giason said the Tropical North Queensland tourism industry was going from strength to strength thanks to new development and marketing initiatives.

“Tropical North Queensland has been partnering closely with Tourism Queensland and industry to increase economic and employment opportunities from tourism,” Mr Giason said.

“Tropical North Queensland is extremely active in the intrastate and interstate markets and, although still early in the process, we are already seeing great results from our ‘Change your Latitude’ campaign.”

Media Contact: Jo Gibbons 3225 1005 / 0439 761 416