Queensland’s popularity as Australia’s holiday State continues to grow, with visitors staying longer and spending more than anywhere else in the country, according to new figures released today.

Tourism Research Australia’s latest National Visitor Survey showed good growth in the number of Australians holidaying in the State in the year to March 2013.

“Almost eight million Australians holidayed in Queensland during the year, spending more than 37.5 million nights (or an average 4.7 nights) and $6.5 billion on visits to the State,” said Minister for Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games Jann Stuckey.

The figures show holiday visitor numbers are up seven per cent, eight per cent for nights, and spending increased four per cent compared with the previous year.

Locally, Tourism Port Douglas and Daintree, the official Port Douglas tourism site for Port Douglas, Daintree & Cape Tribulation, won last year's Tourism Marketing Award for Tropical North Queensland.

"Domestic visitation into the Douglas region is consistent with last year, however we are bucking the trend with our average annual growth rate at 12.5 per cent," said Executive Officer Doug Ryan. That's higher than Tropical North Queensland, showing 9.5 per cent, and Queensland overall recording just over 10 per cent. “An encouraging trend is with our International visitor nights up 36.2 per cent," said Mr Ryan.

Mantra Group’s six resorts in Port Douglas have experienced a 10 per cent growth in revenue (when comparing the current financial year to the previous), in line with the data released by Tourism and Events Queensland. "Our Port Douglas resorts have experienced an increase in both occupancy and rate during the past year, which has resulted in solid revenue growth," said Area Manager Chris Northam. “The market segments that have generated the strongest growth were via online channels and inbound tourism."

Other National Visitor Survey highlights include:

• Interstate holidaymakers increased 10 per cent to 2.5 million, boosted by travel from the State’s key markets of Sydney and Melbourne.
• More than 5.4 million Queenslanders also holidayed at home during the year which is a six per cent increase.
• Domestic holiday day travel grew strongly as well with trips up 16 per cent to 18.8 million.
• Overall travel to Queensland, including business travellers, holidaymakers and those visiting friends and relatives, remained stable with 18 million Australians spending 76 million nights and almost $14 billion.

Ms Stuckey said the positive results were a testament to the impact of the heightened marketing activity recently implemented by Tourism and Events Queensland (TEQ).

TEQ has partnered with regional tourism organisations across the state to develop a series of targeted destination-marketing campaigns, including:

• 'Outback Queensland Eventures', encouraging Queenslanders to 'promise' to visit an iconic outback event this year
• ‘1 Day in Paradise’ in Tropical North Queensland
• ‘Make the most of the moment’ on the Sunshine Coast
• ‘And Action’ on the Gold Coast
• ‘Where great begins’ for the Southern Great Barrier Reef

Ms Stucky said it's "especially pleasing to see such a strong performance considering the tough start to the year the industry faced in the wake of ex-tropical Cyclone Oswald."

“The results also demonstrate the importance of providing immediate support to Queensland’s tourism industry following wet weather events with campaigns such as Australia Day II encouraging Australians to holiday in the State.

“The survey reaffirms this recovery with the number of Australians holidaying in Queensland in the March quarter increasing 17 per cent compared with the same time in the previous year.

Holiday visitors numbers to Tropical North Queensland were up 2 per cent, to 864,000.