The Gold Coast’s tourism sector continues its rebound from COVID with the city recording some record figures.
New figures from Tourism Research Australia show the Gold Coast welcomed 12.6 million domestic overnight and day trip visitors in the 12 months to June.
That’s up 33 per cent but is still down almost 11 per cent on 2019 levels.
Of those domestic visitors, 4.3 million were overnight stays with record numbers of people from Sydney visiting the Glitter Strip.
Domestic visitors pumped a massive $7.7 billion into the local economy, which is up on 2019 figures.
There was a solid number of people travelling to the Gold Coast for work with 584,000 business travellers in the last year.
Experience Gold Coast Acting CEO Rachel Hancock welcomed the figures, but warned there could be some tough times ahead for the sector
“But let’s not forget that these results are tempered by current economic headwinds including rising cost-of-living, changing consumer tastes, and increased competition locally and globally that are impacting demand for travel and destination choice,” Ms Hancock said.
“This was seen in the slightly lower growth in visitor nights as travellers begin to tighten their belts.”
While domestic tourism has been bouncing back, international tourism is still well below pre-COVID levels.
“The international market continues to recover slower than expected due in part to global impacts on most long-haul travel and a gradual response for holiday travel to the Asia Pacific region due to cost considerations.
“There is plenty of work to do in interstate and international markets and we remain laser-focused on the return to pre-pandemic levels overall.”
