Tourism spikes in Queensland

Queensland Tourism thrives with record visitor numbers and spending

Photo courtesy of Visit Queensland, Australia Facebook page

Queensland’s tourism economy continues to thrive as 27.7 million visitors spent $34.7 billion in the year ending June 2024, according to the latest data from Tourism Research Australia.

Visitors spend an average of $95 million in Queensland every day, delivering a boost to the 260,000 Queensland jobs directly and indirectly supported by tourism.

Queensland’s international visitor market continues to recover, with 2.1 million visitors (76.3 per cent recovered, compared to pre-COVID-19) generating a record $6.2 billion in overnight visitor expenditure.

Trips to visit friends and relatives led to the increase. Business travel and employment set new expenditure records, whilst holiday and education markets are still in recovery at 89.3 per cent and 90.8 per cent of pre-COVID-19 spending levels.

China has returned as Queensland’s top tourism market by visitor expenditure, generating $833 million in overnight visitor expenditure, 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).

New Zealand (466,000) led the way in 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 spending ($339 million in OVE).

In terms of domestic tourism, Queensland regained its number one market share position in the domestic holiday market by overnight visitor expenditure, with 10.8 million holiday visitors spending $14.8 billion, a 28 per cent market share.

The increase in share reflected both a rise in holiday visitors and how much was spent on their holiday visit over the June quarter.

Business travel is performing especially well, with Queensland’s 10.2 per cent annual growth to $5.2 billion in OVE considerably outperforming the national average.

Tourism and Events Queensland CEO Patricia O’Callaghan said it was pleasing to see the results moving in the right direction.

“The return of international tourists is gaining momentum and while we still have solid recovery work to do, the results show that our hard work is moving us in the right direction,” she said.

“We also remain front of mind for domestic holidaymakers and while we’ll continue to fight for the leading market share, we understand that what really matters to our operators most is converting interest in a Queensland holiday, into a booked Queensland holiday.

“That’s why, just last week, we partnered with Virgin Australia to offer more than half a million airfares to all their Queensland destinations, with prices starting as low as $45. Campaigns like these are working and bringing more visitors to our state.”