These findings come from the recently-released National Visitor Survey which tracks the tourism industry in Australia.
Popular areas like the Gold Coast were among the biggest winners. The Gold Coast has seen a strong increase in tourism spending and patronage. Nearly 3.5 million tourists from the rest of Australia visited the Gold Coast between March 2013 and 2014, spending a total of $3.2 billion.
The largest growth was in the December to March period at the start of this year, with tourist numbers up 12 per cent on the same period a year ago.
Tourism Minister Jann Stuckey pointed to certain states as being more popular for those looking to escape to the Gold Coast.
“Gold Coast holidays were particularly popular with Melbournians with travel from the key interstate market also increasing 11.3 per cent during the year to March 2014,” said Ms Stuckey.
Good signs for hospitality workers in Queensland
Strong growth in the number of visitors and amount that tourists are spending is good news for Queenslanders working in areas which will benefit from this spending. Industries like hospitality will benefit from these increases in tourist numbers, putting greater demand on professions like chefs, bakers and other hospitality workers.
With many of these areas already seeing shortages in trained professionals, now might be a good time to consider an apprenticeship or traineeship in Queensland. With tourism numbers set to increase before the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, there will be strong demand across these industries.
Tourist numbers up across the country
It wasn’t just Queensland that has benefited from strong tourism numbers, with Australia as a whole also seeing greater number of tourists heading into the state.
Both overall tourist numbers and tourist spending were up 6 per cent in the twelve months before March of this year. The number of nights spent in accommodation also increased slightly, up 1 per cent to 214 million overnight stays with Australian accommodation providers.
The countries of destination which saw the greatest increase are all in Asia. Tourists from China, Singapore and Malaysia were all up, with 14, 13 and 15 per cent growth respectively.
By Leanne de Toerkenczy, Public Relations Coordinator
