Near-record number of visitors push spending to highest levels

2019-01-09

A near-record number of domestic overnight visitors spent the highest amount ever on the Fraser Coast in the year to September, according to the latest figures from Tourism Research Australia.

An estimated 740,000 overnight domestic travellers visited the region which included a record number of holiday-makers – 418,000. Total visitors were up 5.8% on the three-year trend, with the number of holiday-makers rising by 7.8% over the same period.

Total spend by domestic overnight visitors in the year hit $430.1 million, a hike of 15.3% based on the three-year average, with the spend per night up 6.7% to $144 and the spend per visitor 7.8% higher at $582.

Fraser Coast Tourism & Events general manager Martin Simons said it was great to see the region following the trend of the State, and the entire country, in posting record results.

“The Fraser Coast is also performing well relative to other regions with the highest year-on-year growth in expenditure in the State and the second-highest percentage increase in total visitor numbers behind Townsville,” he said.

The number of intrastate visitors staying overnight rose 6.8% on the three-year trend to 584,000, which included a 4.3% bump in the number of visitors from Brisbane to 236,000, a 4.1% gain in the number of people visiting friends and relatives to 202,000 and an 8% boost in the number of holiday-makers to 309,000.

Interstate visitation was up 2.6% on the three-year trend to 156,000.

Mr Simons said the increased spend was driven by a 6.9% jump in total visitor nights to 3 million while the average length of stay to 4.1 nights was also marginally up.

“The big move was in holiday-maker nights which climbed 7.8% to 1.9 million with a stable average length of stay at 4.4 nights,” he said.

The number of daytrippers was stable at 779,000 and their associated spending was $68 million.

Mr Simons said the Fraser Coast moved to reporting domestic visitor numbers in comparison to the three-year average in 2017 to provide a more accurate summary of the tourism trends, ironing out some of the peaks and troughs on an annual basis.

Larger sample sizes were used in the reporting of international results, also released today, showing spending on the Fraser Coast in the year to September rocketed 59.9% higher to $52.5 million, when compared with the previous corresponding period. Total international overnight visitor numbers decreased by 6.2% to 141,000.

The decline in visitor numbers was offset by a large increase in both spend per visitor and spend per night.

The United Kingdom regained its place as the Fraser Coast’s biggest international source market with 30,000 travellers coming in the year to September, down 8.7% when compared with the year to September 2017, followed by Germany at 28,000 and New Zealand at 13,000.

Mr Simons said revised international figures would be released later this year once issues with the quality of the ‘main purpose of visit’ passenger data supplied to TRA by the Department of Home Affairs had been resolved.

On the broader domestic level, 22.8 million people visited Queensland spending a total of $17.6 billion, of which $7.9 billion was holiday expenditure, while 102.7 million travellers spent $70.3 billion in Australia in the year to September – all new highs.

New records were also set on the State and national level for international visitors with 2.8 million visitors to Queensland spending $5.9 billion and a total of 8.4 million visitors across Australia injecting $29.8 billion into the economy.

ENDS

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