Queensland’s holiday market shines in new domestic visitor results
Posted by editor (editor) on Mar 18 2010
2010 >>

Aussies in need of a holiday continued to choose Queensland in 2009 with the state recording its highest share of domestic holiday visitors in more than two years, Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor announced today.

Mr Lawlor said the National Visitor Survey for the year ended December 2009, released today by Tourism Research Australia, also revealed that the number of holiday visitor nights was up in 2009.

“This is a positive result for Queensland, with our share of the domestic holiday market increasing by 1 percent, which hasn’t been as strong since September 2007,” Mr Lawlor said.

“The number of nights our holiday visitors stayed was also up in 2009 to more than 36 million nights.

“Holidaymakers make up the largest proportion of visitors to Queensland, so it’s encouraging to see that those who did holiday in Queensland last year increased the length of their stay.

“Queensland has seen growth in domestic holiday nights over the last three consecutive quarters with intrastate holiday visitor nights up by 2.4 percent in 2009 and interstate holiday nights remaining stable.

“There is no denying that 2009 has been a difficult year, particularly for those who gain their livelihood from our tourism industry.

“The global financial crisis and a downturn in business and consumer confidence, severely affected Australians’ travel patterns over the past year.

“In response, Tourism Queensland has been conducting a series of hard hitting tactical campaigns offering highly competitive travel deals throughout the state.

“It’s positive to see the intrastate holiday market remaining stable in 2009, a strong indicator that Tourism Queensland’s focus on initiatives targeting the intrastate market is working.”

Mr Lawlor said while overall domestic visitors to Queensland decreased by six percent to 15.7 million, this was consistent with the national average.

“The domestic holiday market revealed more encouraging results for Queensland across the board with holidaymakers to the Fraser Coast up 28 percent to 398,000, Central Queensland up 27 percent to 445,000, Toowoomba and Golden West up 12 percent to 327,000, Townsville up 11 percent to 302,000 and the Outback up nine percent to 152,000.

“The Sunshine Coast, Fraser Coast, Central Queensland, Toowoomba Golden West and Queensland’s Outback were also the main regions to benefit from the stability in the intrastate holiday market.

“Queensland also benefited from growth in interstate VFR (visiting friends or relatives) visitors, with the market increasing by more than six percent.

“Commercial accommodation providers benefitted from these results with visitor nights up three percent.

“Holidaying families and visitors from Melbourne also helped to buoy the domestic visitor results for Queensland with Melbournians increasing their holiday visitation to Queensland by 11 percent.”

Mr Lawlor said Australians had heard the call of Queensland’s Tropical North with the visitation increasing by 1 percent.

“Not only did more Aussies visit the tropics in 2009, they also increased their length of stay, which inturn resulted in a 23 percent increase in expenditure to more than $1.7 billion,” Mr Lawlor said.

“Recent Tourism Queensland domestic marketing activity for the region such as the ‘Spend more time not more money’ campaign which resulted in nearly 7800 room nights and an estimated $5 million in visitor expenditure for the region, appear to have attributed to this encouraging result.”

“Central Queensland was another region to fare well domestically in 2009 with the region recording a 17 percent increase in over domestic visitors to 1,130,000, while visitor nights were also up significantly to 4,456,000.”

Mr Lawlor said 2009 was one of the toughest years on record for not only the Queensland tourism industry but for tourism industries globally and it was positive to see that Queensland had managed to hold its own especially in the holiday market.

“It was not unexpected that domestic visitor numbers would be down in 2009, however it’s encouraging to note these results revealed that things for the holiday market were looking more positive in final quarter of 2009,” he said.

“The holiday results from the last quarter are a good indication that the outlook for 2010 is positive, which is consistent with the Tourism Forecasting Committee’s latest report which predicted the number of nights Australians spend in Queensland to increase by 2.2 percent.”

A region-by-region breakdown of Queensland’s domestic visitor results is below.

Brisbane

Following the state trend, Brisbane witnessed a decline in domestic visitation from both the intra and interstate markets resulting in an 11 percent decline in total visitation for 2009.

Intrastate visitors decreased 12 percent with decreases in holiday visitors from the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast contributing.

Day trips to Brisbane for a holiday however increased by 3% to 4.5 million trips.

The intrastate visiting friends and relatives market to Brisbane increased, with growth from the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast recorded, an indication that visitors from these regions shifted from holiday to a more economical form of travel (for example VFR or a day trip).

Domestic expenditure in 2009 to Brisbane was down 21% to $2,200 million.

Internationally, Tourism Research Australia’s International Visitor Survey for the year ended 2009, revealed international visitors to Brisbane increased 2%, with holiday nights increasing 25%. Visitation was largely buoyed by the holiday and strong overseas working holiday markets.

Brisbane recorded growth in the Chinese, Taiwanese and Indian markets – (China up 47% to 63,000), (Taiwan up 26% to 34,000), (India up 8% to 14,000). German and French visitors were also up 14% and 37% respectively.

Gold Coast

The Gold Coast saw a decline in domestic visitors of 3% for 2009, with decreases in interstate and intrastate business travel key contributors to the decline.

The domestic holiday market to the Gold Coast declined 5%, which also contributed to the expenditure decline (down 5% to $2,851 million for 2009).

The holiday day trip market to the Gold Coast however increased 11% to over 3.7 million trips.

In comparison, Tourism Research Australia’s International Visitor Survey for the year ended 2009, recently revealed that the Gold Coast performed strongly in 2009 with international visitors numbers up 2% to 813,000. International expenditure for 2009 to the Gold Coast also remained steady at $1 billion.

Whitsundays

Domestic visitors to the Whitsundays declined 26% in 2009, with a drop in interstate and intrastate holiday visitors driving the decline.

However, interstate visitors from Victoria continued to travel to the Whitsundays with a 13% increase in visitors. Victorians also increased their total nights and length of stay to the region up 2.1 nights to 8 nights.

International visitation to the Whitsundays in 2009 was more positive with international visitors up 1% to 223,000, nights up 5% to 1.3 million nights and expenditure up 16% to 156 million.

Tropical North Queensland

Domestic travel to Tropical North Queensland increased by 1% for the year ended December 2009, underpinned by an increase in interstate holiday (up 14%) and interstate VFR visitors (up 32%).

In contrast, intrastate holiday and VFR travel within Queensland to Tropical North Queensland reported a drop of -12% and -20% respectively, whilst intrastate business increased strongly due to local and neighbouring regions travelling to the Tropical North Queensland for business.

Total nights spent in Tropical North Queensland increased 6% which correlated to an increase in average length of stay. Expenditure was also up 23% to $1,741 million.

Internationally, visitation to Tropical North Queensland continued to struggle from the decline in Japanese visitors which dropped 45% to 89,000. On a positive note, visitors from China to Tropical North Queensland were up 41% to 41,000 with the number of nights they spent increasing significantly to 125,000.

Sunshine Coast

The Sunshine Coast recorded a 4% downturn in domestic visitors in the year ended December 2009, predominately due to a decline in VFR travel (a consistent theme across the majority of Queensland regions).

Positively the Sunshine Coasts largest domestic market, the intrastate holiday market, recorded an upswing of 3% for 2009 due to increases in holiday visitors from neighbouring regions.

Interstate visitation dipped 4% for the year, however more Melbournians travelled to the Sunshine Coast for a holiday.

Domestic visitor expenditure to the Sunshine Coast also remained stable at $1,806 million.
Internationally, visitors to the Sunshine Coast spent $222 million on their trips, up 20%.

Last changed: Mar 18 2010 at 1:52 PM