August 20, 2021
Tourism in the South Burnett has improved substantially during the past two years, according to a new report from Southern Queensland Country.
The Regional Tourism Organisation gather anonymised mobile phone and banking data to track tourism flows across the Darling Downs, South Burnett and Granite Belt.
In their latest monthly analysis of the South Burnett’s tourism market, SQC noted the region’s average occupancy level in June was 61 per cent.
This represented a 29 per cent increase over the same month two years ago.
The average length of stays in June was also up.
Average stays rose from two days to three in 2020, and rose again from three days to four in 2021.
According to SQC, almost one-in-five South Burnett visitors in June came from Brisbane (11.2 per cent) or Moreton Bay (8.8 per cent).
A further 7.7 per cent came from Toowoomba, and about 7.6 per cent came from the Sunshine Coast.
Other leading sources of visitors were the Fraser Coast, Gold Coast, Bundaberg, Logan City and Ipswich.
Even better, it seems most tourists were pleased they came.
SQC noted that six-in-10 visitors had positive things about their visit to friends and family, while only 2 per cent were dissatisfied.
This balance between positive and negative reactions gave the South Burnett a “Tourism Sentiment Index” of 58 in June.
SQC’s June report was presented to the South Burnett Regional Council’s Finance standing committee meeting on Wednesday by Regional Development portfolio chair Cr Kirstie Schumacher.
She said the report was good news for the region’s tourism operators.
However, the challenge for them now was to continue improving their offerings to push the Tourism Sentiment Index even higher.
