International visitor numbers to Queensland are slow in returning to pre-pandemic levels, but those who are coming are spending big.
New figures from Tourism Research Australia show Queensland welcomed 2.1 million international visitors in the year to June.
The latest report found the state’s international visitor market continued to recover and was now at 76.3 percent of pre-COVID-19 levels, but generated a record $6.2 billion in overnight visitor expenditure (OVE).
It stated trips to visit friends and relatives led the increase, with OVE from this market up 16.4 percent compared to 2019.
“Business travel and employment set new expenditure records, whilst holiday and education markets are still in recovery at 89.3 percent and 90.8 percent of pre-COVID-19 spending levels,” the report said.
The data showed China had returned as Queensland’s top tourism market by visitor expenditure, generating $833 million in OVE, led primarily by the return of education and those visiting friends and relatives, followed by New Zealand ($821m), Japan ($511m), the United Kingdom ($499m), and the USA ($460m).
The report stated New Zealand (466,000) led the way on visitor numbers, followed by the USA (215,000), the United Kingdom (209,000), Japan (158,000) and China (143,00). South Korea achieved records in both visitor numbers (102,000) and visitor spend ($339 million in OVE).
Five regions surpassed pre-pandemic OVE levels – Brisbane ($3.2b), Sunshine Coast ($371m), the Whitsundays ($184m), Southern Great Barrier Reef ($81m) and Fraser Coast ($61m).
It said international visitor numbers remained in recovery across all regions, with the Sunshine Coast (91.5 percent recovered) and Brisbane (84.3 percent recovered) the closest to five years ago.
The report showed Queensland had regained its number one market share position in the domestic holiday market by OVE, with 10.8 million holiday visitors spending $14.8 billion, a 28 percent market share.
Queensland Tourism Minister Michael Healy said the increase in share reflected both a rise in holiday visitors and how much was spent on their holiday visit over the June quarter.
Minister Healy said it came amidst a normalisation of Australia’s domestic holiday market, which saw an overall contraction in visitor spend over the past year.
“Severe weather impacted Queensland over the December and March quarters, but a rise in interstate and intrastate holiday visitors and expenditure in the June quarter provided a welcome boost, increasing 20 per cent year-on-year.”
He said the report showed domestic business travel was also performing especially well, with Queensland’s 10.2 percent annual growth to $5.2 billion in OVE considerably outperforming the national average.
The report showed three regions hit record domestic OVE this year – Brisbane ($7.5b), Southern Great Barrier Reef ($1.5b), and Queensland Country ($1.6b) which also welcomed a record 1.1 million holiday visitors. Sunshine Coat also hosted a record 4.3 million total visitors this year.
“It’s fantastic to see Queensland return as Australia’s number one holiday destination in the latest data. Market conditions are challenging and share may change over time, but we know travel intention to Queensland is very strong.
“It is also encouraging to see business travel continuing to return as this is such an important market to help us fill the mid-week.”
