Off-season tourism campaign

l CAIRNS REGION

TOURISM Tropical North Queensland is focusing on the off-season to target Australians holidaying at home.

This follows Mission Beach economist Peter Faulkner telling a Cairns Chamber of Commerce lunch last week that the greatest challenge for the region’s tourism industry was holding onto the multibillion-dollar domestic visitor market as more Australians chose to holiday overseas.

He said domestic tourism had been “phenomenally strong” without international tourist numbers.

“Tourism has been the standout performance over the last few years, particularly domestic tourism, but the challenge as Australians travel overseas is can we hang on?,” Mr Faulkner said.

TTNQ chief executive officer Mark Olsen said the organisation remained “very active in the domestic market with a particular focus on shoulder season visitation”.

“The Spring into Summer campaign will launch in October to encourage visitation over the summer months,” he said.

“Domestic visitation is driving bookings for August which is performing well with occupancies more than seven per cent ahead of 2019. Forward bookings for December are well ahead of 2022 thanks to the return of international visitors.”