Domestic Visitors To SGBR Destination Continue To Grow!
Posted on June 15th, 2016
Nearly two (2) Million domestic visitors, representing just under 10% of all visitors to Queensland, experienced the Southern Great Barrier Reef as their choice of destination to the year ending March 2016.
The Southern Great Barrier destination (Capricorn, Gladstone (CQ) and Bundaberg/North Burnett regions) has greeted 1,968,000 visitors, representing a 7% increase (that’s 131,000 more) domestic visitors to the year ending March 2016.
The average length of stay for domestic visitors is just under 4 night (3.9 nights) as part of a total of 7.7 Million nights (an increase of 2% to the destination).
The average spend per visitor is $468 with an average spend per night of $123.
Total Overnight Visitor Expenditure (OVE) to the year ending March 2016 from Domestic Visitors is $947 Million, which is an additional $15 Million from the previous year, or a 2% increase.
Capricorn Enterprise chief executive Mary Carroll said “this increase of domestic visitors and overnight visitor expenditure to our destination, yet again demonstrates that by partnering our limited funds and resources whilst targeting our markets based on research, is working.”
“Domestic visitors to our destination for Holiday, VFR (Visiting Friends and Relatives) and Business is roughly one third each, with the majority coming from within our own Southern Great Barrier Reef region, following by Brisbane and the south east corner. Source Markets from Bundaberg to Mackay and west continue to be very important for the Capricorn Coast and Rockhampton, just as places like the Town of 1770/Agnes Water and Bargara rely heavily upon visitors from Yeppoon and Rockhampton” she said.
Ms Carroll said “the research is showing a slight growth in business travellers coming from Brisbane to the Southern Great Barrier Reef destination year ending March 2016, which is a slightly surprising yet welcome result, particularly for Rockhampton, Emerald and Gladstone.”
Of the 1,968,000 (nearly 2 million) domestic visitors to the Southern Great Barrier Reef to the year ending March 2016, 1.7 million visitors are from within Queensland (Intrastate) and 263,000 are Interstate (particularly NSW and Victoria).
