TNQ once again with stunning domestic tourism results

Posted on October 2, 2018 by Pete Faulkner - TNQ, Tourism, Uncategorized

Last quarter we talked about “stellar” results from the March 2018 National Visitor Survey in the Far North (see here). Well if last quarter was stellar then this quarter is on a whole new scale…”constellational”?

The June 2018 National Visitor Survey from Tourism Research Australia (data available here) shows the Far North beating both national and state measures by a large margin. Across the nation domestic overnight visits topped 100 million for the first time and were up 7.0%*, expenditure grew by 7.9%. Queensland saw a slower growth in visitor numbers (+4.7%) but a much more impressive growth in expenditure (+10.3%). However, this appears as nothing compared to TNQ which saw visitor numbers jump 13.1% while expenditure soared by 25.1%.

Performance in the day trip market was no less impressive (although much less important) in TNQ; visitors were up 9.9% with expenditure leaping 38.0%. We have to say that these numbers look so exceptionally impressive as to warrant a good deal of scepticism, although the TRA release makes not mention of any specific issues with the data presented so we have to take these numbers at face value. Perhaps revisions in coming quarters can be expected?

All up, when we total overnight and day trips, TNQ saw an increase in expenditure of 26.7%.

We are still waiting for the release of the June 2018 International Visitor Survey (which was originally scheduled for release 2 weeks ago) and there is no sign of a release date yet. The international sector has been the area where TNQ has been struggling of late so we hope that these wonderful numbers from the NVS are a precursor to an improvement in the international market too.

* All changes are year/year