Thursday, 29 March 2018
THE tourism sector continues to boom in the New England North West with the region achieving its highest volumes of domestic overnight expenditure on record, according to the latest National Visitor Survey from Tourism Research Australia.
Member for Northern Tablelands and Minister for Tourism and Major Events Adam Marshall said the result was brilliant news for the local economy.
“Millions and millions of tourism dollars are being spent all across our region and straight into the pockets of local hotels, pubs, restaurants, boutiques and businesses,” Mr Marshall said.
“Last year Aussie tourists spent $638 million in the New England North West, a significant increase of 33.5 per cent from the previous year.
“Not only is the New England North West attracting more international visitors, but the word is out amongst Aussie travellers as well, our region is growing into a tourist hot spot.
“There were 1.6 million visitors, up 9.7 per cent, who stayed 4.7 million nights, up 17.4 per cent, in the region last year.
“Tourism is everyone’s business and more visitors equals more money being spent locally and more jobs for locals in this rapidly growing sector.
“I’ll continue to work hard with local communities and councils to keep this momentum going throughout this year and beyond.”
New England North West is Regional NSW’s fifth most popular market for visitors and nights and sicxh highest for expenditure in 2017.
Mr Marshall said the result came off the back NSW sending tourism records tumbling after reaching 100 million visitor nights for the State in 2017.
“A record 31.6 million Aussie tourists travelled across the State in 2017, staying over 100 million nights in total, making NSW the first in Australia to reach these incredible results,” Mr Marshall said.
“NSW continues to set the bar for domestic overnight visitor numbers, with the State welcoming 31.6 million visitors in the year ended December 2017, which is nearly 10 million more than Queensland and 7.1 million more than Victoria.”
MEDIA: Adam Marshall 0429 440 054