DOMESTIC TOURISTS GO ON SUNSHINE COAST SPENDING SPREE

Domestic tourists spent an extra $255 million on the Sunshine Coast last year according to the latest National Visitor Survey results, Tourism Minister Margaret Keech announced today.

Mrs Keech said the Sunshine Coast region saw an amazing 18.6 per cent increase in spending from domestic holidaymakers in the year ending March 2007.

“This puts the Sunshine Coast in the top ten largest tourism regions in Australian for visitor expenditure, ranking seventh,” Mrs Keech said.

“This fantastic increase in expenditure was thanks to the more than 2.5 million domestic visitors who spent in excess of 9.7 million visitor nights on the Sunshine Coast.

“This represents a 2.1 per cent increase in domestic visitors, making the Sunshine Coast the third most visited destination in Queensland by the domestic market.”

Mrs Keech said the strong increases in expenditure and visitation were due to a 7.1 per cent increase in the holiday market.

“The Sunshine Coast really is a destination perfect for holidays so it is no surprise that almost 1.6 million domestic residents visited for that reason,” she said.

“The other great thing is that not only are they coming for holidays in larger numbers but they are staying longer, increasing their visitor nights by 4 per cent.”

Sunshine Coast Tourism CEO John Fitzgerald said the strong increases come as no surprise to local tourism operators, who have been working hard to attract more domestic holidaymakers.

“Tourism Sunshine Coast continues to work in partnership with Tourism Queensland and industry to develop and promote the diversity of quality tourism offerings on the Sunshine Coast,” he said.

“We are really buoyed by these results on the back of strong international growth figures just last week.

“Tourism is a major economic and employment contributor to the local region and to see such strong growth in tourism spending locally is a good indication that our hard work is paying off.”

Media Contact: Jo Gibbons 3225 1005 / 0439 761 416