SOUTHERN GREAT BARRIER REEF STRONGEST GROWTH IN QUEENSLAND!
Posted on June 21st, 2018
If just over two (2) million domestic visitors and an annual spend of $1.1 Billion dollars isn’t impressive enough, this will: – the Southern Great Barrier Reef destination has seen the strongest percentage increase in visitation in the state of Queensland at 10.2% growth in visitors from March 2017 to March 2018!
National Visitor Survey results were released this week from Tourism Research Australia to reveal domestic tourism is up in Australia and Queensland, with the SGBR punching well above its weight.
The Southern Great Barrier Reef destination branding and marketing is thanks to a strong collaboration by the three regional tourism organisations in the Capricorn, Gladstone/1770 and Bundaberg regions (Capricorn Enterprise, GAPDL and BNBT) working in partnership with the local tourism industry, Tourism and Events Queensland and local government partners.
Capricorn Enterprise chief executive Mary Carroll said “Half of the two million domestic SGBR visitor numbers and half of the 7.3 Million visitor nights in the year to March 2018 are in our Capricorn region stretching from the Keppel Islands to the Central Highlands.”
“Our average length of stay in Capricorn for domestic visitors and our number of visitor nights is showing very strong growth at 9 and 8 percentage points respectively, but we will continue to work with industry to increase that average stay of 3.8 nights with further packaging” she said.
Ms Carroll said “The more exciting news is that these results are reflected in our strongest three year trend, with solid growth in visitors, visitor nights and expenditure to our Capricorn precinct within the greater SGBR destination.”
Average spend per night is $153 pp (8.7% increase) and average spend per visitor is $555 pp.
“It is critical that our accommodation operators maintain strong room rates and aren’t tempted by price wars because visitors will judge us by the value of their holiday and the exceptional experiences and service they receive” she said.
Of the 2 Million domestic visitors to the Southern Great Barrier Reef destination to the year ending March 2018, 1.7 Million (up 7.8%) were from within Queensland and just under 300,000 (up 28.1%) were from interstate. NSW visitors accounted for 167,000 interstate visitors, an incredible 49% increase from this source market which reflects the targeted marketing done in northern and regional NSW by the SGBR RTO’s over the past year.
Just under a quarter (22%) of visitors are from within the Southern Great Barrier Reef between our variety of towns and localities, which reflects the continuation of the strong 400km radius visitor and the importance of marketing within our backyard.
Ms Carroll said “Our SGBR partnership between the three regions continues to go from strength to strength and we are so very proud of our industry partners, who work so very hard seven days a week ensuring our visitors have exceptional experiences every day of the year.”
TEQ Regional Snapshot Infographic
