Community
26 October, 2024
Tourism spending boost
TOURISM Tropical North Queensland has generated $177.8 million in domestic and international visitor expenditure and a record $300m in advertising value equivalent including $123m in the last financial year.
In TTNQ’s 2023-24 annual report, chief executive officer Mark Olsen said $15m in federal funding for international recovery had delivered an outstanding 43:1 return on investment.
“TTNQ undertook a staggering 95 campaigns in international markets in 2023-24 with $82m in overnight international visitor expenditure injected into our regional economy from more than 66,000 bookings,” he said.
“The results continue to roll out with a further $52m overnight international visitor expenditure and 50,000 bookings from those campaigns captured this quarter.
“TTNQ’s larger international budget has allowed us to negotiate multiple global partnerships including working with booking giants like Expedia Group and Trip.com across multiple markets for the first time.
“Working with large trade partners helps to stretch this funding and further amplify the success of the campaigns by turning every dollar spent in the past 12 months into $3.
“This means our investment to date of $3.5m into international trade conversion campaigns is forecast to achieve $10.5m in campaign value.”
TTNQ chairman John O’Sullivan said the returns proved how important it was to invest in marketing and validated the federal government’s strategic investment in Tropical North Queensland through the international tourism recovery program.
“International recovery is at just 62 per cent and it will be necessary to maintain strong global activity as flights increase at the end of the year to support and grow passenger numbers,” he said.
“Continued investment in global marketing will be critical for the growth of tourism in Tropical North Queensland which delivers valuable export dollars into the regional economy and supports one in five jobs.”
However, Mr O’Sullivan said with no guaranteed funding beyond this financial year, TTNQ had been careful to create a legacy with strong trade engagement to convert travel agents into advocates for the destination who continue to sell Tropical North Queensland for the next five years without marketing dollars.
