Australian visitors spent 8.5% more per person in 2017 when they visited Tropical North Queensland compared to 2016, according to the National Visitor Survey.
Each visitor spent an average $1,120, or $223 per night, which boosted expenditure for the region by 3.9 per cent to $2.04 billion for 2017.
Just 40% of the region’s 9.1 million overnight visits were in Cairns city with the remaining 60% or 5.5 million nights dispersed throughout Tropical North Queensland.
Attracting high-value visitors and dispersing them throughout the destination for more nights is the best way forward.
More than 80% of the destination’s international visitors arrive via domestic channels, adding pressure to seating availability for domestic passengers.
In 2017 we also had a 2% decrease in room stock which may have impacted on holiday visitors falling 2% to 939,000 and total visitors falling by 4.2% to 1.8 million.
Intrastate visitors remained stable at 1.2 million with 4.4 million nights and an average length of stay of 3.7 nights.
Interstate visitors fell 10% to 628,000. However, interstate total nights were stable at 4.7 million with an average length of stay of 7.5 nights.
Melbourne visitors increased by 23.8% to 226,000, staying 1.9 million nights, an increase of 29.4%.
The number of Brisbane visitors remained stable at 239,000 and stayed 1.2 million nights.
Sydney visitors fell by 16.9% to 165,000, staying 825,000 nights.
Drive continued to play an important role in visitation, accounting for 966,000 domestic visitors in 2017.
The domestic statistics should be looked at in conjunction with our international figures, especially as there are so many international travellers on domestic routes such as Sydney where we have the most constraint.
Our total visitation is 2.7 million visitors with an expenditure of $3.14 billion which is healthy during a year where we lost 2% room stock.
Pip Close
Chief Executive Officer