Tourism numbers in Capricorn & the Southern Great Barrier Reef Region continue to see positive growth!
Posted on January 28th, 2020
National Visitor Survey results were released this week from Tourism Research Australia to reveal overall visitation to the Southern Great Barrier Reef (SGBR) Destination is up by 11.8%, welcoming a whopping 2.3 million domestic visitors (2 million were from within Queensland and 263,000 were from interstate) from September 2018 to September 2019, spending $1.1 billion.
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 Bundaberg Tourism) working in partnership with the local tourism industry, Tourism and Events Queensland and local government partners.
Capricorn Enterprise Chief Executive Mary Carroll said, “Our industry has been working exceptionally hard to achieve these great results and what’s even more impressive is visitors to our Capricorn Region have accounted for approximately 50% of the SGBR total (the SGBR region also includes Gladstone and Bundaberg regions)!”
“Our SGBR inter-regional visitors (699 000 pa) are showing a 3 year trend increase of 12.2% and our Brisbane/South East Queensland visitors (650 000 pa) are showing a 3 year trend of 12.1% increase, which reflects our direct marketing efforts”.
Ms Carroll said “These latest statistics have shown a massive increase in our ‘Visiting Friends and Relatives’ (VFR) market and the region’s ‘Business’ travel sector, as well as our ‘Holiday’ visitors. This increase can be attributed to not only our strong Mining Resources sector but also the $3.6 Billion in Major Projects currently underway and planned for Rockhampton and the Capricorn Coast”.
The average spend per night is $129 per person and the average spend per domestic visitor is $496 pp.
“Whilst these official stats are just one indicator, the intel from our local operators also confirms this trend, with ongoing reports of excellent visitation. We expect to see these positive visitation figures continue into the next quarter, with many coastal operators reporting a record December period” she said.
Ms Carroll said “Our SGBR partnership between the three regions continues to go from strength to strength with an exciting year ahead. We must also make mention of the great work being done by our tourism industry leaders, who are proactively selling our region to the world. We will have a record (11) businesses from the Southern Great Barrier Reef represent the region in May 2020 at the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE) in Melbourne, which is the largest travel trade event in the Southern Hemisphere”.
