Tropical North Queensland led the State’s record growth in international visitation in 2025 with international visitor spend in our region hitting a record $1.2 billion, a 24% year on year growth.
The average length of stay for international visitors remained at 9.5 nights, however, TNQ had the highest spend per night of $207 as well as the highest spend per trip of all the regions of Queensland.
While we saw a drop in Japanese numbers to 89,000, China recovered by 86% to 53,000, and there was continued strong growth from the US (up 31%), the UK was up to 84,000 and we had stand-out annual growth from New Zealand of 42% year on year.
The challenge of gaining market share domestically continued with growing overseas travel by Australians despite the cost–of-living pressures. Total domestic overnight visitor spenddropped to $2.9 billion, including day trips, in 2025 which is the first year of the new DoTSdata, compared to the previous NVS result of $3.3 billion for the year ending December2024.
Programs such as the Federal Government’s $10 million Reef Educational Experience Fund (REEF) will help to grow domestic visitation and hopefully inspire the families of students to bring them back for a family holiday. Primary school students will visit the Great Barrier Reef from July 1.
The initiative is part of a broader $18.5 million tourism support package which includes the $480,000 Tourism Operator Support Grants and the $520,000 Tourism Operator Training Program to help operators engage with visiting school groups.
Adverse weather continues to impact the region and TTNQ has been working with the Daintree and Gulf regions to drive visitation after flooding isolated those areas and damaged infrastructure. Through the media we have asked locals to head west on the Savannah Way when the season starts on 1 April as the roads are now open through to Einasleigh.
Douglas Shire Council is working to ensure the Daintree Ferry is operating in time for the Easter holidays and we encourage locals to visit the region and support businesses in that region. We have been working with Tourism and Events Queensland to encourage sharing of operator posts and are working on collaborative reels with both TEQ and Tourism Australia.
Mark Olsen
Chief Executive Officer