Brisbane – the premier international tourism destination in Queensland

1 October, 2007

Brisbane's position as the leading international tourism destination in Queensland continues to improve and consolidate as illustrated by the more than $1billion spent by overseas visitors the year ending June 2007.

Brisbane Marketing CEO David Regan said the staggering figure indicated an increase of $186 million (or 22 per cent) on the year ending June 2006.

"We are the number one international destination in Queensland with 42.5 per cent of the visitor market share,” Mr Regan said.

"Every recent statistics release from Tourism Research Australia, is good news for Brisbane."

Mr Regan said compared to the year ending June 2006, Brisbane recorded a 9 per cent increase in the number of international visitors.

"Brisbane hosted 930,500 international visitors and 12,425,000 international visitor nights resulting in an average length of stay of 13.4 nights.  These increases were driven by a 9 per cent increase in business visitors and a 7 per cent increase in holiday visitors."

Mr Regan said the strongest international markets of the United Kingdom and New Zealand remained strong at 17 per cent of the market each.

"We also continue to see good results in growing markets such as China and the USA with 8 per cent and 7 per cent of the market respectively."

Mr Regan said the results of the survey indicated that Brisbane was increasingly seen as the destination to visit for business and leisure.

"By continuing to work closely with Brisbane City Council, Tourism Queensland and industry, I am confident that Brisbane will continue to see increases as a destination both internationally and nationally."

For more information visit: www.brisbanemarketing.com.au