Beyond tourism ‘hot spots’
Most tourism ‘hot spots’ are regional. Metropolitan areas might have more visitors and total spend overall, but it is in regional Australia where tourism is genuinely a core local industry.
Tourism job ‘hot spots’ across the regions
The top 10 ‘hot spots’, which have the highest proportion of tourist jobs for any Local Government Area (LGA), are listed in Figure 1. Apart from one metropolitan area (Cottesloe), all places are regional. This highlights the strong dependence many regional areas have on the tourism industry to generate local jobs.
On average 2 of every 10 jobs is tourism related in regional areas – this could be retail, cleaning or accommodation. Regional Cities have about 21 per cent of local jobs in tourism related areas while Heartland Regions have 14 per cent.
Figure 1. Tourism job ‘hot spots’ – where does your local government area sit in relation to the average tourism job creation rate? Are you a winner in the top ten? Darker blue is stronger jobs than the national average or a ‘hot spot’. Source: RAI analysis of Census 2011
Tourist expenditure ‘hot spots’
In 2015, tourists spent an estimated $95.5 billion in Australia and regional areas captured 53 per cent of this expenditure.63 per cent of the total spend is concentrated in the five metro cities and typical tourist destinations; including the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, North and South Coast New South Wales and Tropical North Queensland.
Again, when we look at tourist expenditure per head of population for a local economy, we see that the top 10 ‘hot spots’ are all regional (Figure 2). Expenditure per person for the top 10 ranges from $98,000 in Lasseter (NT) to $9,200 in Spa Country (Vic).
Figure 2. Tourism expenditure ‘hot spots’ – where does your region sit in relation to the average tourism spend rate? Are you a winner in the top ten? Darker blue is higher expenditure per person or a ‘hot spot’ Source: RAI analysis of Australian Tourism Commission data 2015 relative to 2011 population
Tourism is an industry staple for many regional places. It is essential that we capture the benefits of this current period of growth for local and international tourism in our regions that depend on them.
How is your region capturing the benefits of good times for Aussie tourism?
