National Visitor Survey shows record visitation to The Whitsundays

The latest National Visitor Survey has shown a record 811,000 domestic visitors to Queensland's The Whitsundays - spending a collective $1.3 billion in the year to June 2022, an increase of 31.2%.

Commenting on the survey findings, Tourism Whitsunday Chief Executive, Rick Hamilton said the broad appeal of The Whitsundays helped it outshine other destinations domestically and overseas, with the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef once again delivering record numbers of visitors and spend.

Hamilton commented “we are clearly the stand-out region in Queensland, with the highest percentage increase of overnight visitor expenditure, along with record increases in domestic holiday visitors.

“Domestic visitors enjoyed 3.7 million nights in our world-class destination with an average spend per visitor of $1,613. This underlines the significant contribution that tourism makes here, as we are a region that relies on tourism for 1 in 3 jobs. These results are excellent validation of our unparalleled product offering and the investment our operators have been making in new experiences for all visitor demographics, after what has been a difficult 2 ½ years.”

Hamilton said that intrastate visitors are still the largest demographic of visitor but it’s encouraging to see the strong increase in interstate visitors, with Whitsunday Coast Airport continuing to deliver record growth mainly from Melbourne and Sydney domestic markets.

Hamilton adds “we’re looking forward to continued growth in the interstate and international markets. We have had a year of record visitation and the forward projections we’re looking at suggest this trend will continue through until late January 2023.”

The Whitsundays is the most tourism-reliant area in Queensland with one in three jobs directly related to tourism, and 40% of all visitation to the Great Barrier Reef departing from within the region.

For more information on National Visitation Survey data,