Domestic tourism provides solid boost to the Far North

Posted on January 17, 2020 by Pete Faulkner - Cairns, QLD, TNQ, Tourism, Uncategorized

The release this morning by Tourism Research Australia of the National and International Visitor Surveys for the Sept 2019 quarter (available here) will have provided some light relief for the tourism industry in our region; although the good news was restricted to the domestic sector.

Across Australia total domestic visitor numbers (both overnight and day-trip) were up 12.3% with expenditure lifting 14.2%. Queensland saw visitor numbers increase even more (+13.7%). Unfortunately the lift in TNQ, while impressive, was still well behind the national and state level at just 8.5% with expenditure rising 12.3%.

The International sector saw visitor numbers increase 2.5% nationally with a 5.0% rise in expenditures. Queensland performed poorly with visitor numbers falling 0.4% and expenditure up just 1.7% (a real decline once we factor in inflation). TNQ, once again, has done even worse with visitor numbers falling 2.7% and expenditure up only 1.2% (again, a real decline).

In TNQ China and the US saw good increases in visitor numbers (the US was particularly strong up more than 8%) but the UK fell more than 8%.

When seen in total (domestic and international) TNQ had expenditure break the $4 billion mark for the first time with an increase of 9.1% for the year. This is certainly good news for our region but, in both the domestic and international markets, we continue to underperform compared to the national data. The region’s share of the international visitor market to Australia has once again fallen and is at an all-time low of just 9.7%.