DOMESTIC TOURISM ON THE RISE IN THE WHITSUNDAYS

Domestic tourism is on the rise in the Whitsundays according to the latest National Visitor Survey, Tourism Minister Margaret Keech said today.

Mrs Keech said domestic tourists spent more than $714 million in the Whitsundays to the year ending March 2007.

“This was largely generated by a 3.8 per cent increase in domestic overnight visitation and a 5 per cent increase in visitor nights,” Mrs Keech said.

“It is great to see more than 569,000 visitors spending more than 2.6 million visitor nights in one of Queensland’s truly special holiday regions.”

Mrs Keech said the strong increase in the Whitsundays tourism market was led by a boost in holidaymakers.

“Over the past year domestic holiday visitation has increased by a fantastic 7.4 per cent,” she said.

“This means that last year more than 376,000 visitors, who stayed nearly 1.9 million nights, visited the region specifically for holiday purposes.

“The domestic holiday market has grown an average of 2.5 per cent a year over the past three years.

“The strongest growth was among interstate visitors, whose numbers inreased by 10.4 per cent.

“New South Wales proved to be the region’s strongest growth area increasing by 8.7 per cent.”

Tourism Whitsundays CEO Peter O’Reilly said the latest domestic tourism results reflected the hard work and determination of the Whitsundays tourism industry.

“The Whitsundays continues to build stronger partnerships with both state and local governments to assist in the continued growth of the region,” he said.

“Through new investment and infrastructure the region will continue to provide world-class tourism opportunities to domestic travellers.”

Media Contact: Jo Gibbons 3225 1005 / 0439 761 416