Queensland international student market fuelling education tourism boom

It’s not something you might associate with a holiday, but it’s making an increasingly important contribution to Queensland’s tourism industry.

QUEENSLAND is learning lessons from southern rivals to forge an education tourism boom.

Tourism Research Australia data released yesterday reveals educational visits to Queensland increased almost 15 per cent to 121,000, with spending up almost a quarter to a record $1.7 billion in the year to March.

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The Queensland student spending spree was double the national average.

The new figures come after leading demographer Bernard Salt last week identified educational or “studentificational” travel as an area of enormous opportunity for future growth in the Queensland tourism industry.

Queensland’s numbers still pale next to Sydney and Melbourne, but Mr Salt said that meant there was room for more growth.

The rise in Melbourne’s foreign student numbers coincided with the time Victoria overtook Queensland as Australia’s second most popular tourism state almost a decade ago.

Yesterday’s figures are reward for the State Government’s International Education and Training Strategy, which was introduced in 2016 in a bid to tap in more of the student market.

International students Yu Okano, 32, from Japan, Charlotte Higuet, 19, from Belgium, and Lucas Santos, 18, from Brazil, study on the Gold Coast. Picture: Nigel Hallett

In the past two years, international student numbers on the Gold Coast have increased 15 per cent year-on-year, while Brisbane has seen double-digit growth in the same period.

While Melbourne is consistently rated as the most popular destination for international students, Victoria has no other location in the country’s top 10 student hotspots, while more than 30 per cent of Queensland’s 135,000 foreign students are based outside the state capital, with the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and far north Queensland hosting significant numbers.

Tourism Minister Kate Jones said the increase was encouraging, especially compared to the national data.

Belgium’s Charlotte Higuet said she chose to study at BROWNS English Language School on the Gold Coast for the very reasons tourism bosses hope to leverage as a major selling point to prospective students.

“The Gold Coast is a very cool place to be living and studying,” she said.

“I didn’t want to be in a big city like Sydney or Melbourne and I really wanted to be near the beach. I wanted to feel like I was kind of on holidays, so the Gold Coast is perfect.”