International Tourism numbers continue to climb but TNQ still underperforming

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Pete Faulkner - QLD, TNQ, Tourism, Uncategorized

The Tourism Research Australia International Visitor Survey (see here for the full report download) shows intl visitors to Australia have risen by 8.2% for the year to Sept 2014 with expenditure up 5.4%. Unfortunately Queensland has performed less well with visitor numbers up just 3.6% and expenditure up 2.7% (i.e. only just positive in real terms). As has become all too frequently the case, TNQ has done worse still; here visitor numbers are up just 3.1% to 726,000 for the year.

The Chinese market continues to surge ahead with arrivals up 9.7% for the year nationwide, however TNQ only saw a 4.2% increase to Sept. Visitors from the UK were also up quite well nationally (+5.5%) but disappointed in TNQ (down 7.6%). The bright points for the region are that US numbers were up strongly (+11.7% to TNQ) and total expenditure rose a healthy 5.7% to $914 million. However, as we noted previously (see our blog here) this kind of rise is still unlikely to see TTNQ meet even their newly (downwardly) revised expenditure target; we shall have to see what the National Visitors Survey, out next week, has to tell us to before we can see the whole picture.

As the graphs below shows, TNQ and QLD are struggling to maintain, let alone improve, their share of the international visitor market. International visitor to TNQ from our main markets continue to see only subdued growth with the US, UK and Japan all at virtually the same level (around 86,000 per year each).