Domestic Visitors Come to Play on the Gold Coast in Record Numbers

A total 12.5 million domestic visitors came to play in Australia’s family-friendly capital as new tourism figures reveal record overnight expenditure and visitation.

The National Visitor Survey* (NVS) figures released today show a record 4.2 million domestic overnight visitors injected a record $3.8 billion into the Gold Coast economy.

Domestic overnight visitation increased 18.5 per cent and overnight expenditure grew 22 per cent, as travellers amassed a total 16.4 million visitor nights, up 23 per cent in the 12 months to June 2019.

Destination Gold Coast CEO Annaliese Battista said the Gold Coast once-again outpaced Australia and Queensland’s growth in spend, visitation and visitor nights.

“The increase in domestic market share is attributed to strong growth in record overnight expenditure with visitors spending an average $905 per person, per trip,” Ms Battista said.

“This is a fantastic result seeing as Destination Gold Coast launched its new brand positioning – Australia’s favourite playground – earlier this year to entice families and high-spenders from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane markets.”

All purpose of visit segments experienced double digit growth with 2.3 million holidaymakers (up 22 per cent), a record 1.2 million visited family and friends (up 11 per cent), and a record 574,000 (up 24.4 per cent) travelled for business.

Two million intrastate and 2.1 million interstate overnight segments contributed to record visitation, up 25.2 per cent and 12.8 per cent respectively.

Ms Battista said more than $5.1 million had been invested in marketing the Gold Coast in 2019 across key source markets to ensure the region defends and grows its visitor economy.

“Record overnight visitors from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne in addition to the 8.3 million day-trippers that descended on the Coast, tells us our strategy is resonating with target markets,” she said.

“To leverage the success of Australia’s favourite playground we are investing further in the coming year inclusive of large-scale marketing campaigns.” 

Result for 12 months to June 2019

Gold Coast overview (for 12 months to June 2019)

* From the first of January 2019, Tourism Research Australia has transitioned all data collection for the National Visitor Survey from landline sampling to 100% mobile phone interviewing (replacing the previous method that was 50% mobile and 50% landline). This will result in an unavoidable break in the series between 2018 and 2019 NVS data. Please use caution when making comparisons between 2019 and previous estimates, as the change in survey methodology is likely to affect results. See National Visitor Survey methodology for further information.