Domestic Tourism Grows Despite Challenges

New figures released by Tourism Research Australia show domestic overnight travel saw reasonable growth in the year to September 2011 and in the September quarter, with overnight trips up 4% for both periods.
Data from Tourism Research Australia's National Visitor Survey (taken before the Qantas grounding) show nights were unchanged for the year while visitor nights rose 3% for the quarter and spending was up slightly.
Queensland's domestic tourism market continues to rebound from the natural disasters earlier in the year, mainly through intrastate business travel and visiting friends and relatives rather than interstate holiday travel.
Federal Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson AM MP, says domestic tourism is moving in the right direction, a positive result given the natural disasters and strong Australian dollar.
Minister Ferguson explained "while domestic travel is still below the levels we saw before the global financial crisis, domestic overnight trip numbers are at their highest since 2008.
"Through Tourism 2020, the updated National Long-Term Tourism Strategy, we want to improve on these results by lifting innovation, quality and productivity. It sets the direction for tangible benefits from growing demand from Asia, further developing our digital capability, maximising labour and skills opportunities, and more.
"Surging business travel, especially in Queensland, is opening up opportunities that many service providers may have thought were beyond them. We are seeing some good returns for businesses that can adapt to new trends."
Nationally, overnight business travel increased during the year ending September 2011 and the September quarter 2011, with trip numbers increasing 9% and 14% respectively. Growth in travel to visit friends and relatives also returned solid figures with overnight trips for this purpose up 5% for both periods.
For the year to September, overnight trips rose in Western Australia (up 11%), Victoria and South Australia (up 6%), Queensland (up 5%), Tasmania (up 4%) and New South Wales (up 3%) while overnight trip numbers for the Northern Territory and the ACT were down 12 and 13% respectively.
Tourism Research Australia's National Visitor Survey is at

http://www.ret.gov.au/tra