December 16, 2009
There was a mixed bag of results for Queensland's tourism industry today, with Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor announcing the Bligh Government's aggressive focus on tourism is paying off despite a slump in domestic figures.
This is in contrast to the Tourism and Transport Forum's (TTF) interpretation of the survey, which says domestic tourism continues to lag the rest of the economy.
According to Lawlor, Tourism Research Australia's latest National Visitor Survey reveals 16 million Australians ‘overnighted’ in Queensland in the year ending September 2009.
While numbers were down 4 percent, Queensland fared better than the national average, which dropped 7 percent, and better than other states including NSW (which dropped 9 percent) and Victoria (which dropped 7 percent).
Queensland saw increased share in the domestic visitor market, which grew by 1 percent to 24 percent.
"There is no denying the past 12 months have been tough on our tourism industry and in response Tourism Queensland has initiated a series of hard-hitting tactical campaigns offering highly competitive travel deals throughout the state," Lawlor says.
"These campaigns have generated millions of dollars and thousands of room nights and tour bookings for Queensland's tourism operators when they have needed it most," he says.
Results show Queenslanders holidaying closer to home have been a strong driver for the state’s tourism industry over the past 12 months.
Interstate holidaymakers increased 1 percent to five million state-wide while day trip expenditure remained stable at $3 billion.
Key destination results
Lawlor says overall, Queensland's major tourist destinations are weathering the tough climate.
In Brisbane, domestic visitors increased 5 percent to 4.7 million for the year ended September 2009, while nights were also up 4 percent to 14.6 million.
The Gold Coast recorded a 3 percent drop in domestic visitors to 3.2 million in the year ended September 2009. Nights were down 6 percent to 13.7 million.
Meanwhile, the number of Queenslanders holidaying on the Sunshine Coast increased by 3 percent to 1.2 million, and the number of nights they stayed increased by 10 percent to 4.6 million.
Island-hopping was on a downward trend, with the Whitsundays experiencing a 16 percent drop in domestic visitors to 416,000 and a 15 percent drop in visitor nights to 1.9 million in the year to September 2009.
However, Townsville experienced a good growth in the holiday market with 316,000 Australians holidaying in the region (up 8 percent), and in the business market, which also increased 8 percent to 232,000.
Similarly, the number of Australians visiting Tropical North Queensland in the year to September 2009 increased by 6 percent to 1.6 million, while the number of nights they stayed remained steady at 7.8 million.
'Disappointing result', Tourism and Transport Forum says
While Lawlor praised today's results, the TTF offers a different view by saying the latest National Visitors Survey shows domestic tourism continues to lag the rest of the economy.
According to the TTF, domestic visitor nights fell 1.4 percent in the third quarter compared to the same time in 2008.
Over the last 12 months, visitor nights were down 7.2 percent and overnight expenditure down 5.9 percent.
TTF Executive Director Brett Gale says tourism operators are looking forward to putting 2009 behind them.
“This is the eighth successive quarter of declining domestic overnight tourism demand, which is disappointing for the industry,” Gale says.
“In 2002/3, domestic tourism passed 300 million visitor nights. Since then we haven’t just failed to grow, we’ve lost nearly 50 million nights,” he says.
Despite the loss, Gale says operators can take solace in the fact “the rate of decline is slowing”.
“Nevertheless, the net impact of the GFC and now a strong Australian dollar has been terrible news for domestic Australian tourism,” he says.