December 20, 2017
Southern Queensland Country Tourism – the regional organisation that the South Burnett Regional Council recently quit – is claiming a record number of domestic tourists over the past year.
Although the SBRC no longer provides economic support for the organisation, several local tourist operators remain members.
The Southern Queensland Country Tourism (SQCT) region includes Toowoomba and the Darling Downs, Southern Downs and Granite Belt, Goondiwindi, Balonne and Western Downs.
SQCT CEO Mary-Clare Power said Tourism Research Australia statistics showed that domestic tourists injected more than $746 million into the area’s economy over the past 12 months.
TRA’s quarterly National Visitor Survey (NVS), released on Wednesday, showed 2.002 million visitors to Southern Queensland Country in the year to September 2017 – a 14.5 per cent rise on the previous year and an 8.6 per cent increase over a three-year trend.
“Southern Queensland Country has been ranked second for having the greatest holiday visitation growth of anywhere in the State apart from the Southern Great Barrier Reef region,” Ms Power said.
“Our region welcomed a total of 1.343 million leisure visitors who stayed 3.9 million nights.
“The NVS also showed a surge in expenditure by tourists to our region, up 24.1 per cent on the previous year and up 11.6 per cent over the three-year trend.
“This far exceeds our strategic goal for 5 per cent year-on-year growth which is gratifying for our hard-working local industry.”
Ms Power said targeted promotional campaigns in southern markets and an increasing awareness of access to the region via Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport contributed to outstanding results during the survey period.
“These findings are a great example of what we can achieve when we work together as an industry and a community,” she said.
“I congratulate all of our hard-working tourism operators as well as our partner councils and regional event organisers.
“When we all pull in the same direction, we can achieve great outcomes.”
