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Today’s release from Tourism Research Australia of the International Visitors Survey for the quarter to March 2014 (available here) shows QLD lagging the nation as a whole.
International arrivals were up 6.3% (to 6.012 million, and the first time over 6 million) for the year to March 2014 across the country but into QLD growth was just 0.6%. QLD’s share of the international visitor market is at 34% down from 36% a year ago. SA and VIC were the big gains with increases of 7.8% and 10% respectively.
Nationally the average stay fell to 36 nights (from 38) and average trip expenditure fell by 2.9% over the year (which is a decline of over 5% when we factor in inflation).
In our own region the news was no better. International visitors to TNQ were up just 0.7% (to 696,000). The region’s share of the market has fallen to 11.6% from 12.2% a year ago. Average expenditure in the region fell by 3.5% (over 6% in real terms). As we mentioned last quarter (see here), the weakness in the data for TNQ is particularly disturbing given the strong growth of the Chinese market in general. Chinese visitors to Australia rose 13.5% on the year and now, as a total, are exactly as many as all the visitors to TNQ!
It will certainly be interesting to see TEQ and the QLD government try and spin this data.
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