Massive increase in visitors from Europe/UK to Southern Great Barrier Reef destination!
Posted on March 16th, 2018
A whopping 19% increase in international visitors from Europe/UK in the year ending December 2017 to the Southern Great Barrier Reef destination has got tourism officials excited!
Southern Great Barrier Reef (Capricorn – Central Highlands to the Keppel Islands, Gladstone/Discovery Coast and Bundaberg/North Burnett regions) continues to see positive growth in the International Visitor Survey results released by Tourism Research Australia this week.
Capricorn Enterprise chief executive officer Mary Carroll said “our major international source markets continue to be led by Western Hemisphere markets, with Europe and UK accounting for 95,000 international visitors to the SGBR, which was up 19% on the previous year. Of that number, our major European source market of Germany was 25,000 visitors which was up an incredible 18.8%.”
“These results again reflect the very targeted marketing we have been conducting to our strong western markets in close partnership with our tourism industry, key wholesalers and inbound tour operators.”
Bundaberg North Burnett Tourism General Manager Katherine Reid said “Whilst total international visitors to Australia is up 6.2% and Queensland is up 4.3%, Southern Great Barrier Reef has again punched our weight, being up 6.1% to the year ending December 2017.”
Total International Visitors increased by 6.1%, with 151,000 international visitors enjoying the Southern Great Barrier Reef destination for the year ending December 2017. Of this total number, 118,000 were visiting for holidays, which was a positive growth of 5.3% whilst 19,000 visitors were here for friends and family and 9,000 were here on business across the Southern Great Barrier Reef.
During the 12 months to December 2017, the destination can boast total visitor nights of 2.6 million which is up 26.9% up on the previous year, with a total of 92.2 million dollars spent (increase of 2.3%) in the Southern Great Barrier Reef regions by international visitors.
Gladstone Area Promotion and Development Ltd CEO, Darryl Branthwaite said “the positive growth in visitation for the Southern Great Barrier Reef proves that the collaborative destination marketing partnership between the Bundaberg, Gladstone and Capricorn regions, coupled with the strong support with our operators and from Tourism & Events Queensland, is truly paying off for the region’s economy.”
