A new visitor survey report has revealed that Queensland’s tourism industry experienced a record year in 2019, with more than 28 million tourists visiting the Sunshine State.
According to the report, visitors spent $25 billion in Queensland last year.
Acting Minister for Tourism Industry Development, Grace Grace said new data from the International Visitor Survey showed a record 239,000 Americans spent a record $422 million in Queensland.
New Zealand tourists also spent more than ever, generating $590 million for Queensland’s economy, while a strong 21.3 per cent growth in the Japanese market boosted visitor expenditure to $470 million.
Ms Grace said diversifying the visitor mix was an important part of the State’s tourism strategy.
“That’s why it’s great to see more Americans than ever before coming to Queensland – this is thanks to an aggressive marketing campaign in North America,” she said.
“We’re also seeing a resurgence in Japanese tourists to Queensland thanks to stronger relationships with our travel partners in that region.”
She said the numbers would be further bolstered by new flights from San Francisco, Chicago and Tokyo set to take off later this year and the destination marketing campaigns that would support them.
The Minister said the combined national and international visitor surveys showed year-on-year growth of 12.2 per cent in overnight visitors and 7.4 per cent growth in visitor expenditure.
Domestic visitors to Queensland led the way with record expenditure of $19 billion.
A record number of Victorians experienced a Queensland holiday in the 12 months to September 2019, leading the strong growth in domestic visitation.
