The continual surge in Australia’s tourism industry has had a positive effect on Tropical North Queensland which has emerged as the seventh-highest region in the country for tourist spending.

New figures released by Tourism Research Australia show that Australia’s tourism industry grew to a record $94.5billion on the back of strong growth in both international and domestic visitor numbers, who are staying longer and spending more.Across Queensland, international visitors were up nine per cent to over $2.3million and spend was up 19 per cent to almost $5billion.

Domestic overnight trips increased eight per cent to almost $20.1million, while spending by domestic visitors was up six per cent to $14.5billion.

The regions which received more tourism spending than Tropical North Queensland were Sydney ($15.2billion), Melbourne ($13.8billion), Brisbane ($6.4billion), Perth ($6billion), Gold Coast ($4.5billion) and the North Coast of NSW ($3.3billion).

The Federal Member for Leichhardt, Warren Entsch, said local businesses were benefitting from this growth.

“We have more than 3,600 tourism businesses across Tropical North Queensland, benefiting from the nearly 5.3 million domestic and international visitors who came to our region last year.

“The research shows that tourists stayed an average of six nights and splashed out nearly $3.1billion – making our region the seventh-highest in Australia for tourism spending,” he said.

Entsch said that tourism dollars spent at local businesses have a flow-on effect in local communities – particularly in regional areas where 44 cents in every tourism dollar is now spent.