Domestic tourism in Regional Queensland leads the way

Posted on April 9, 2021 by Pete Faulkner - QLD, TNQ, Tourism, Uncategorized

Tourism Research Australia today released their snapshot domestic tourism data for January, and it showed regional Queensland (indeed regional areas of all States) continuing to demonstrate what can only be described as a resurgent boom.

For the year to January domestic tourism expenditure across Australia fell 16.4%; NSW was -13.0%, Victoria -21.2% and QLD -13.4%. However, when we dig deeper into the Queensland data we see regional QLD up 3.7% for the year while Brisbane and the Gold Coast were down 31.8%.

Considering the data since March makes the distinction even more dramatic. Australian expenditure was up 103.2% while Queensland was up 160.6%. However, regional QLD has almost tripled since March, up 198.2%, while Brisbane and the Gold Coast was up just 116.3%.

While this data set does not allow us to delve into more detail of the regional data, the National Visitor Survey for the Dec quarter showed TNQ expenditures were down 41% y/y (see details here) which suggests that the Far North has not been enjoying the same strong recovery seen across ‘regional QLD’ as demonstrated by the fact that the TRA snapshot data summed for the final quarter of 2020 showed just a 7% decline in expenditures for regional QLD from the previous year.