Record number of domestic visitors

INTERSTATE holiday-makers have led the way for a record number of domestic visitors to Noosa, according to Tourism Research Australia’s latest National Visitor Survey.
The survey looks at data for the year ending June 2016, and found Noosa attracted 803,000 domestic overnight visitors in the year, which is a 12.3 per cent increase on the previous year.
The number of nights spent in Noosa increased more than 20 per cent to 3.2 million, while spending rose 17 per cent to $595 million.
Tourism Noosa acting CEO Louise Terry said almost 40 per cent of domestic visitors were from interstate where Tourism Noosa has conducted significant marketing campaigns, and they also stayed more nights (35 per cent increase) and spent more (43 per cent increase) while in Noosa.
“We’ve had a consistent strategy to target the high-spending interstate markets over the past few years, and it’s clear that this focus has paid off,” Ms Terry said.
“This was the fifth consecutive quarter of growth in domestic visitor numbers and nights which supports the positive feedback from many of our members.”
The Noosa region’s strong domestic visitation results also complement positive growth for the Sunshine Coast and Queensland as a whole.
The figures, released this week, follow the record international visitor results released last week to give Noosa a total of more than 2.2 million visitors for the year ending June 2016, which is a 15 per cent increase on the previous year.
Total visitor nights rose 15 per cent to more than 4 million, while total spent for the year, including day trip visitors, increased 23 per cent to $831 million.
“We are constantly evolving and reviewing our strategies to ensure these positive outcomes are sustained into the future and continue to deliver benefits to Noosa’s businesses and the local economy,” Ms Terry said.