Published Friday, 14 March, 2008 at 12:43 PM
Minister for Tourism, Regional Development and Industry
The Honourable Desley Boyle
Townsville tourism industry benefiting from resources boom
Townsville’s tourism industry was benefiting from the resources boom with almost 300,000 business travellers visiting the region last year, a 7.6% increase, new figures have revealed.
Tourism Minister Desley Boyle said the National Visitor Survey for the year ended December 2007 revealed that business travel to the region had increased significantly over the past 12 months, with 296,000 business travellers spending 966,000 nights in the region.
Ms Boyle said while the business travel sector was doing well, buoyed by the mining boom, overall visitors to the region had declined slightly.
“Last year 1,098,000 visitors spent 4.1 million nights in the Townsville region, declines of 1.6 percent and 7.1 percent respectively,” she said.
Holiday travellers and those visiting friends and relatives also declined by two percent and 2.9% respectively.
She said longer term figures were more positive, recording an overall 4.8 percent increase in visitor numbers over the past three years. Similarly, visitor nights had increased by 3.4% during the same period.
“There is no hiding from the fact that Australia’s whole domestic tourism industry is facing challenging times, growing a negligible 0.3% nationally last year, and this is having an effect on Townsville’s tourism industry,” Ms Boyle said.
“A combination of rising interest rates and spending on consumer items is keeping many families at home while a strong Australian dollar and cheap overseas package holidays have many other Australians packing their bags and grabbing their passports in record numbers.
“The growth in business travel is positive news for the region, as is the fact that intrastate travel is up 8.5 percent with 909,000 Queenslanders travelling to Townsville last year.”
All up, visitors stayed an average 3.8 nights in the region.
Ms Boyle said Tourism Queensland was working closely with Townsville Enterprise to promote the region and she would soon announce some exciting new campaign initiatives, due to roll out nationally in the coming weeks.
National Visitor Survey Townsville snapshot year to December 2007:
Visitors – 1,098,000 – down 1.6%:
Holiday – 395,000 – down 2%
Visiting friends and relatives – 363,000 – down 2.9%
Business – 296,000 – up 7.6%
Visitor Nights – 1,375,000 – down 23%
Average length of stay – 7.3 nights – up 0.8% nights
Ends
Media contact: 3224 2007 or 3225 1005
Tourism Queensland: 3535 5010
14 March 2008
Tourism Minister Desley Boyle said the National Visitor Survey for the year ended December 2007 revealed that business travel to the region had increased significantly over the past 12 months, with 296,000 business travellers spending 966,000 nights in the region.
Ms Boyle said while the business travel sector was doing well, buoyed by the mining boom, overall visitors to the region had declined slightly.
“Last year 1,098,000 visitors spent 4.1 million nights in the Townsville region, declines of 1.6 percent and 7.1 percent respectively,” she said.
Holiday travellers and those visiting friends and relatives also declined by two percent and 2.9% respectively.
She said longer term figures were more positive, recording an overall 4.8 percent increase in visitor numbers over the past three years. Similarly, visitor nights had increased by 3.4% during the same period.
“There is no hiding from the fact that Australia’s whole domestic tourism industry is facing challenging times, growing a negligible 0.3% nationally last year, and this is having an effect on Townsville’s tourism industry,” Ms Boyle said.
“A combination of rising interest rates and spending on consumer items is keeping many families at home while a strong Australian dollar and cheap overseas package holidays have many other Australians packing their bags and grabbing their passports in record numbers.
“The growth in business travel is positive news for the region, as is the fact that intrastate travel is up 8.5 percent with 909,000 Queenslanders travelling to Townsville last year.”
All up, visitors stayed an average 3.8 nights in the region.
Ms Boyle said Tourism Queensland was working closely with Townsville Enterprise to promote the region and she would soon announce some exciting new campaign initiatives, due to roll out nationally in the coming weeks.
National Visitor Survey Townsville snapshot year to December 2007:
Visitors – 1,098,000 – down 1.6%:
Holiday – 395,000 – down 2%
Visiting friends and relatives – 363,000 – down 2.9%
Business – 296,000 – up 7.6%
Visitor Nights – 1,375,000 – down 23%
Average length of stay – 7.3 nights – up 0.8% nights
Ends
Media contact: 3224 2007 or 3225 1005
Tourism Queensland: 3535 5010
14 March 2008