Domestic Tourism in TNQ; fewer visitors but they’re staying longer and spending more

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Pete Faulkner - QLD, TNQ, Tourism, Uncategorized

Today’s release of the National Visitor Survey from Tourism Research Australia (available here) is something of a mixed bag for TNQ.

While overnight domestic visitor numbers across Australia rose by 7.1% for the year to Dec 2017, they fell by 4.2% to Tropical North QLD. However, with an increase in the average length of stay total overnight domestic expenditure in the region was up by 3.9% (slower than the 5.8% increase across Australia).

Queensland as a whole also performed somewhat worse than the nation with a 4.9% increase in visitors and expenditure up 4.7%. Queensland’s share of the overnight domestic market has fallen to an all-time low of just 22.4%, while TNQ’s share remains near lows at 1.9%.

Day tripper numbers for the TNQ region rose by 4.6% but expenditure fell by 4.8%.

As a result total domestic expenditure for the region was up 2.8%. When we add in the disappointing increases seen in international expenditure (see commentary here) we see that total tourism expenditure in TNQ for the year to Dec 2017 was up just 0.5% against an increase of 3.2% for Queensland and 5.9% in Australia.