Christmas has come early with the latest National Visitor Survey revealing record visitation numbers for Townsville when compared to pre-COVID.
Townsville North Queensland has achieved record Overnight Visitor Expenditure (OVE), record visitation from Brisbane and 20% increase in leisure (holiday) visitation.
Townsville Enterprise CEO, Claudia Brumme-Smith said these results are outstanding when compared to 2019 given the figures were skewed following an artificial inflation from residents occupying many holiday properties after the floods.
“Townsville recorded an Overnight Visitor Expenditure of $979.2M which is up 24% on 2019 and a 35% increase annually – a record for Townsville,” Mrs Brumme-Smith said.
“Leisure visitation is up 20% with a record 1.6M nights which is an increase of almost 30% when compared to pre-covid. Traditionally, Townsville’s visitor mix was evenly split across business, leisure and visiting friends and relatives, but this swing to favour holiday visitors is a positive sign with new accommodation and tourism products due to hit the market in the next 12 months.”
“In terms of source markets, Brisbane came out on top with an increase of 34% on 2019 and interstate holiday visitors are up 32% on 2019 – where we are focusing our marketing efforts.”
“The tourism, events and hospitality sector was the hardest and first hit during the global pandemic. Our region’s operators have shown resilience true to our North Queensland character and we are now reaping the rewards.”
The North Queensland region is heavily reliant on tourism as an industry sector, making up approximately 25% of Queensland’s tourism economic contribution despite having only 15% of the population.
