International visitors staying for longer and spending more

2018-11-02

Overseas visitors are staying on the Fraser Coast for longer and spending more money, according to the latest preliminary figures from Tourism Research Australia.

In the year to June, international visitor expenditure jumped 17.6% to $42.7 million - its highest level in the past three years.

The increase was driven by increased average length of stay, which was up 12.7% to 4.9 nights, and the total number of nights of 686,000 in the year to June 2018 was up 5.2% on the previous financial year.

Fraser Coast Tourism & Events general manager Martin Simons said the trend of longer stays was positive for the region.

The longer stays had kept revenue strong despite a drop of 6.6% in the total number of visitors to 139,000 in the year which was mostly the result of a decline in United Kingdom visitors.

“The UK and Germany are our biggest source markets, each contributing 30,000 visitors,” he said.

“While Germany continued to grow, up 5.3% for the year, UK numbers continued on their recent trend and were down 13.4%.

“This sort of decline has been evident for the past two quarterly surveys.

“There has been some sentiment expressed that the Brexit debate is causing some people to conserve their money.

“But we’re getting good engagement with the tourism campaign launched in the UK following Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s visit to Fraser Island so we’re hopeful that will boost the UK market.”

The Queensland Government announced a $200,000 digital, trade and outdoor campaign in the UK, immediately after the royal visit, which in two days reached almost four million people, with 4.6 million digital impressions and 240,000 video views.

“The timely promotion of Fraser Island - the main drawcard for international visitors to the region – will certainly help turn the UK trend around,” Mr Simons said.

ENDS

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