{"id":54583,"date":"2014-01-20T14:56:16","date_gmt":"2014-01-20T04:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=54583"},"modified":"2020-09-04T10:34:04","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T00:34:04","slug":"68pc-really-like-tourists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/01\/20\/68pc-really-like-tourists\/","title":{"rendered":"68pc ‘Really Like’ Tourists"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 20, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Southern Queensland Country tourism area – which includes the South Burnett – welcomed 1.9 million domestic and international overnight visitors during the year to June 2013, and most of us appear to like them.<\/p>\n

Tourism and Events Queensland released the results last week as part of a Social Indicators study for the Southern Queensland Country region, which also takes in the Southern Downs and Toowoomba.<\/p>\n

Compared with Queensland as a whole, local residents are more likely to agree that they really like tourists (68 per cent compared with 57 per cent for Queensland).<\/p>\n

Three in five residents want more tourists to visit the region (52 per cent compared with Queensland 45 per cent).<\/p>\n

Seven in 10 support development growth – much higher that the State average (70 per cent compared with Queensland 59 per cent).<\/p>\n

Most local residents seem to enjoy living here: \u00a034 per cent (up 2 per cent from 2010) said they couldn’t think of anywhere else they would rather live. But they’re not as happy as Queenslanders as a whole … the average across the State was 39 per cent.<\/p>\n

More than half indicated they enjoyed living in the Southern Queensland Country area but could think of other places they would equally enjoy.<\/p>\n

Only 13 per cent said they only lived here because of circumstances and would prefer to live elsewhere.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Local residents are very welcoming of tourists with 57 per cent wanting more visitors to come; 40 per cent thought visitor numbers should stay about the same.<\/p>\n

Only 3 per cent want fewer visitors and 7 per cent admitted either adjusting their lifestyle to avoid tourists or staying away from places tourists go; 68 per cent (up from 56 per cent in 2010) say they “like” tourists while 26 per cent (down from 33 per cent) only “tolerate” them.<\/p>\n

Looking at development, 70 per cent (down from 71 per cent in 2010) are happy with continued growth in the region; 16 per cent are happy but want no more growth; 2 per cent want less tourism and 12 per cent want more growth but in a different direction.<\/p>\n

Local residents identified some benefits of tourism, including increased regional pride (91 per cent); 59 per cent believed tourism brought important economic benefits; 39 per cent identified greater cultural diversity as a benefit.<\/p>\n

However they also identified negatives: 47 per cent believed tourism increased prices (compared with 56 per cent across Queensland); 27 per cent believed tourism caused more disruption and 26 per cent thought it increased property values.<\/p>\n