Mr Lawlor said 16.1 million domestic visitors came to Queensland in the year ending June 2009, second only to New South Wales with 22.5 million visitors and above Victoria with 15.9 million.
“That means we have retained our second place at 24% just ahead of Victoria whose slightly lower visitor figures also translate to a 24% share of the overall domestic visitor market.
“When you consider that Queensland has had to deal with floods and the oil spill, along with the global financial crisis and swine flu; this is an excellent result.
“Queenslanders are also taking holidays closer to home and interstate visitors are spending more per trip in Queensland than they are in most other states.
“Many of those who are taking holidays are staying closer to home, a fact which has benefited Queensland, with intrastate holidaymakers on the up increasing 0.3 percent to 4.9 million state-wide.
“This is a welcome trend which is helping bolster Queensland’s tourism industry in the current tough economic times.”
Mr Lawlor said the Bligh Government recently allocated a funding package of $36 million over three years to deliver additional tourism marketing and development activities to market tourism in a bid to further bolster Queensland’s competitiveness and protect Queensland jobs.
The National Visitor Survey, released today by Tourism Research Australia, revealed that while overall domestic visitors to Queensland decreased by six percent during the 2008/09 financial year, Queensland fared better than the other states (notably NSW down 7% and Victoria down 8%).
Holidaymakers make up the largest proportion of visitors to Queensland.
Mr Lawlor said Brisbane residents were largely driving the strong intrastate holiday market for several key tourism destinations.
“For example, 1.2 million Queenslanders holidayed on the Sunshine Coast during the year ended June 2009, (up 5%),” Mr Lawlor said.
“This is good news for these destinations and is a positive indicator that Tourism Queensland’s focus on initiatives targeting the intrastate market is working.”
Mr Lawlor said that Tropical North Queensland and the Fraser Coast in particular had also recorded mostly good results for the financial year.
“Visitors to Tropical North Queensland increased five percent to 1.5 million,” he said.
“This increase in visitors was largely due to intrastate travel, with just over a million Queenslanders visiting the Tropical North, 22 percent more than during the year ended June 2008.
“Australians visiting the Fraser Coast also increased by 23 percent to 848,000, while the number nights of nights they stayed increased 35 percent to 3.6 million.”
Mr Lawlor said that the report did contain some bad news with the numbers of domestic visitors to the Gold Coast declining seven percent to 3.1 million.
“Total domestic visitors to the Sunshine Coast and Whitsundays also declined by 12 percent (2.6 million visitors) and 19 percent (407,000 visitors) respectively,” he said.
“There is no doubt that the past 12 months have been tough for our tourism industry.
“For this reason Tourism Queensland has revised its domestic marketing focus to centre on hard-hitting campaigns which encourage Australians to book a holiday now.
“The fact that domestic visitors to Queensland have declined less than the national average and that we haven’t lost market share is a good indication that these tactics have had an impact.”
