by Roy Weavers

Growth in UK and European visitors, particularly the under 30s, is an indication that the ground-breaking Best Job in the World campaign is working, Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor said today.

Mr Lawlor was commenting on Tourism Research Australia's International Visitor Survey for the year ended March 2010, which revealed that young travellers from the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands all increased at a higher rate than the national average.

"Many of these markets have been hit hard by the global financial crisis, so this is good news for Queensland that our overseas markets are showing signs of recovery," Mr Lawlor said.

Mr Lawlor said 2009 was an extraordinary year due to the Global Financial Crisis, and that was why the Bligh Government made a $36 million election commitment to steer the tourism industry through it and protect tourism jobs.

Queensland's key UK market increased one percent to 249,000 visitors over the year to March 2010, underpinned by the increase from the youth market.

The Brits stayed longer, up 11 percent to 5.6 million nights and spent $475 million on their trips to Queensland, an increase of three percent over the year.

85,000 Germans also spent 2.3 million nights in Queensland in the year to March, 10 percent more visitors and 13 percent more nights than during the year before.

French visitors increased 22 percent to 44,000 while the number of nights they spent in Queensland increased 14 percent to 1.3 million.

Swiss and Dutch visitor numbers also increased more than the national average.

China continued to perform strongly, with 153,000 Chinese visitors spending 2.5 million nights in Queensland, a nine percent increase in visitors and a significant increase in nights. A key contributor to this increase was from the education market.

Chinese visitors also spent $326 million on their trips to Queensland in the year ended March 2010, up $87 million (36%) on the year before.

"The recent announcement by China Southern airlines that it will fly direct from Guangzhou to Queensland from the end of this year should help grow these figures even more," Mr Lawlor said.

Overall travellers to Queensland stayed longer as visitor nights increased three percent to 40 million nights.

Total international expenditure to Queensland remained steady at just under $4 billion.

Editors comments: Lots of talk, lots of statistics but I don't see lots of visitors.  What are your thoughts ?