The National Visitor Survey figures released today (September 20) show a spike of 7.2 per cent for the year, lifting the total of overnight domestic visitors to a record 3.95 million.

Gold Coast Tourism CEO Martin Winter said the domestic success followed a similar result for International overnight stays, which also jumped 7.2 per cent to a record 1.056 million visitors.

“For the first time, the Gold Coast welcomed more than 5 million overnight visitors,” Mr Winter said.

“It is terrific to see the popularity of the Gold Coast continue to grow. Adding the day-tripper figures to overnight visitors, the Gold Coast welcomed 12.91 million people over the year.

“This underlines the Gold Coast yet again as a premier leisure destination for Australians.

“Attracting more people to the Gold Coast is one of our primary goals and we work very closely with so many industry partners to achieve that, along with Tourism and Events Queensland and Tourism Australia,” he said.

However, Mr Winter cautioned that within the top line figures of success, there were other segments that needed continued diligence and attention.

“Tourism is a highly competitive global market. There is no opportunity for the industry to rest on its laurels.

“Day-trippers are down 8.8 per cent for the year and that's not unexpected when we see the challenges the theme parks have endured over recent months, as one of the major drivers of that market.

“We also see a trend of overall visitor spend not growing as fast as the increase in visitor numbers.

“So that means more people are enjoying the Gold Coast but each one is spending slightly less on average.

“Interestingly, the full year figures show total number of domestic nights stayed are up 11.9% and the average length of stay is up as well.  That would indicate there is a lot of discounting going on in the market.

“Our 7.2 per cent growth rate in visitor numbers is stronger than both the Australian (5.2%) and Queensland (6.2%) figure but there is a lag in expenditure growth. The Gold Coast's total visitor spend grew 4.1 per cent to $3.1 billion whereas the Australian (6.6%) and Queensland (5.5%) expenditure growth was slightly higher.

“We will continue to promote Destination Gold Coast to Australia and the world, and encourage visitors to explore further, stay longer and spend more,” Mr Winter said.

*National visitor data is provided by National Visitor Surveys conducted by Tourism Research Australia. Note that the Daytripper figures are subject to volatility from quarter to quarter. It is historically, a higher volume-lower expenditure segment.

ENDS

CONTACT:              Dean Gould, Executive Director, Corporate Affairs and Strategy
                             07 5584 6265 / 0411 657 381 / dean.gould@gctourism.com

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