Gold Coast tourism: New data reveals incredible spike in domestic and international visitors

Nearly $5 billion was spent on the Gold Coast by tourists in the past year, with new data revealing something surprising and incredible about the city right in time for summer.

A MEXICAN wave of visitors has bolstered the Gold Coast’s near $5 billion tourism industry.

Just weeks out from the beginning of the busy summer visitor season, new data to be released today reveals Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane has fallen in love with the Glitter Strip again.

Tourism industry leaders say a new campaign launched this year is responsible for the turnaround. It matches a spike in overseas visitor numbers from Japan.

Tourism numbers are looking up for the Gold Coast.

The National Visitor Survey data for the year ending June 30 shows:

* A record number of people from Sydney and Melbourne visited the Coast, up by 13.2 per cent and 17.1 per cent respectively.

* The number of Brisbane day-trippers visiting jumped by 35 per cent to 1.5 million people.

* About 4.1 million domestic tourists spent more than $3.7 billion, up 20 per cent on the previous year. This compares to $3.1 billion in 2014.

* The total number of visitor nights increased 1.5 per cent to 9.7 million.

Minister Kate Jones. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

Tourism Minister Kate Jones said the data was pleasing: “We are also starting to see positive changes from Japan – a traditionally valuable international market – which in the year to June 2019 moved up two positions to become Queensland’s third most valuable international tourism market.

“This is great news for Queensland’s tourism industry and is supported by solid growth in visitor expenditure from our largest market – China – of almost 15 per cent.

Both local and international visitors are flocking back to the Coast. (AAP Image/Tim Marsden)

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The Gold Coast tourism industry is bracing for another major boost in January when the city hosts the largest Japanese business events group to visit in more than a decade.

Electrical retailer Nojima will bring 3500 delegates to a conference that is expected to inject $8.4 million into the local economy.

Federal Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham said the Gold Coast had “cemented its place” as one of Australia’s business event destinations.

“Business events are extremely valuable to the Gold Coast economy, with the average business events visitor spending at least twice as much as a leisure visitor,” he said.

“Importantly, the impact of these events on the local visitor economy is far reaching, with business events visitors more likely to extend their visit or return for a holiday to the Gold Coast.

“There is no doubt the Gold Coast is becoming a major hotspot for Japanese tourists with visitors number up 14 per cent over the last year and visitor spending up a whopping 67 per cent.”