Visitors Spend More in Noosa

Noosa has continued its strong record of growth in visitation with the recent international and domestic visitor statistics for the September 2014 quarter revealing that key visitor markets are staying longer and spending more in Noosa.

A key result has been international visitor spend, which has increased in Noosa by 13.5%, a strong result alongside international expenditure for the rest of the Sunshine Coast which grew just 3.44%, and for Queensland only 2.7%.

Tourism Noosa CEO, Damien Massingham said that over 52% of all international visitors to the Sunshine Coast chose to stay in Noosa. Importantly, Noosa's market share of Sunshine Coast inbound expenditure was dominant, with 81.5% of all international visitor expenditure in the region occurring in Noosa, as opposed to 18.5% share for the rest of the Sunshine Coast.

“Overall, international visitor numbers are up 5% to 128 000 with Noosa's key markets of New Zealand increasing 16% to 22 360, North America up 21.4% to 13 555 and Germany growing 12% to 17 500 with the UK remaining stable at 29 500” Mr Massingham said.

“Visitors are also spending more time here with international nights increasing 13.5% to 883 000 and all key markets on the rise. The UK in particular is going from strength to strength, up 20% to more than 173 000 nights”.

“On the domestic front, visitor numbers are also positively trending with an increase of 9.7% to reach 893 000 visitors. Sydney visitor nights increased 11% to 647 000 and Brisbane visitor nights were up15.2% to 1.31 million, which also reflected a spend increase from Sydney of 6% to reach $140.6 million. Expenditure from Brisbane visitors jumped 2.9% to total $154 million”.

“This is great news for Noosa and reflects our strategic focus on maintaining a balance between volume and value visitors, ensuring all sectors of the industry are busy but also benefitting from a yield perspective. Numbers are important but the results that we are seeing in visitor spend are critical to keeping Noosa's local economy buoyant.”

“The total spend in Noosa is now standing at $869 million, moving us closer to Tourism Noosa's goal of increasing the value of tourism to $1 billion by 2016. Tourism is the largest contributor to Noosa's economy and these figures are very encouraging as we head into one of the busiest summer seasons for Noosa in some time” Mr Massingham said.