{"id":181924,"date":"2017-06-21T19:02:11","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T09:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=181924"},"modified":"2020-09-11T12:21:38","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T02:21:38","slug":"tourism-spending-breaks-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2017\/06\/21\/tourism-spending-breaks-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourism Spending Breaks Record"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mary-Clare<\/a>
Southern Queensland Country Tourism CEO Mary-Clare Power<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

June 21, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tourism spending in the Southern Queensland Country Tourism region – which includes the South Burnett as well as Toowoomba, the Southern Downs and Western Downs – hit a record high over the past 12 months.<\/p>\n

This is according to the Domestic Tourism Snapshot released on Wednesday by Tourism and Events Queensland.<\/p>\n

According to the report, expenditure growth in SQC was strong in the year ending March 2017 – up 42.9 per cent to a record high $773.3 million.<\/p>\n

TEQ said this was driven by longer stays and visitors spending more per night.<\/p>\n

Domestic visitation also grew, up 3.1 per cent, driven by a strong interstate market (up 14.1 per cent).<\/p>\n

The snapshot said SQC received\u00a0a total of 1.898 million visitors over the 12-month period (up 3.1 per cent), which included 524,000 holiday visitors (up 2.4 per cent).<\/p>\n

Visitors spent an average $407.50 when in the region.<\/p>\n

SQCT CEO Mary-Clare Power said overall Queensland tourism expenditure was up a very healthy 5.8 per cent, but SQC’s growth was seven times the State growth figure.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGood news like this is due in no small part to the region\u2019s dedicated tourism community. <\/p>\n

“For the past two years the region has enjoyed steady growth, welcomed more operators, seen product improvements and upgrades, all of which has been underpinned by an increase in cooperative marketing initiatives,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n