Tourism is an important part of the economy. Tourism Research Australia (TRA) run annual visitor surveys to measure the size and composition of the tourism market in each area, and this data is presented here. Tourism may include overseas visitors in the country for a holiday, business or education, Australian visitors staying overnight, or local day trippers visiting the area. These different types of tourists will utilize different services within the economy, so understanding the different tourism markets is important for Local Government and businesses.
Please note - the visitor's surveys use 2021 Census based SA2s and are not normally available at LGA level. .id have combined SA2s to form a best fit to LGA boundaries using a slightly different methodology to previous surveys, so users may notice some small differences between numbers here and those in the previous version of this table, for the earlier years. This difference is expected to be within the parameters of sample size variability.
Data source
Tourism Research Australia – Survey data
Current benchmark:
| Visitor nights - Numbers | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cairns - 2010/11 to 2023/24 | Cairns | Regional QLD | |||||||
| Year | International Visitor Nights | Domestic Visitor Nights | Domestic Daytrips | International Visitor Nights | Domestic Visitor Nights | Domestic Daytrips | |||
| 2023/24 | 3,827,977 | 5,613,920 | 990,232 | 23,637,868 | 70,866,308 | 25,634,628 | |||
| 2022/23 | -- | 6,732,512 | 1,116,366 | -- | 71,969,024 | 24,399,611 | |||
| 2021/22 | -- | 5,554,225 | 770,277 | -- | 68,071,879 | 22,286,239 | |||
| 2020/21 | -- | 4,411,915 | 1,262,016 | -- | 64,605,217 | 24,982,540 | |||
| 2019/20 | -- | 4,180,980 | 1,101,043 | -- | 62,110,599 | 26,131,070 | |||
| 2018/19 | 5,046,895 | 5,134,419 | 1,424,164 | 26,376,452 | 74,460,660 | 28,651,778 | |||
| 2017/18 | 4,276,225 | 5,007,163 | 1,019,261 | 25,232,896 | 66,218,384 | 26,065,178 | |||
| 2016/17 | 4,679,370 | 4,135,196 | 1,052,660 | 24,173,447 | 60,900,554 | 24,241,433 | |||
| 2015/16 | 4,797,405 | 4,825,743 | 781,636 | 24,132,767 | 58,819,437 | 25,434,052 | |||
| 2014/15 | 4,861,125 | 3,874,889 | 919,344 | 23,583,070 | 58,624,694 | 25,211,985 | |||
| 2013/14 | 4,403,247 | 4,948,080 | 840,422 | 22,475,064 | 56,964,291 | 23,736,408 | |||
| 2012/13 | 4,700,634 | 3,753,111 | 1,238,565 | 23,156,371 | 58,793,476 | 25,769,791 | |||
| 2011/12 | 4,091,446 | 4,250,588 | 1,190,828 | 21,964,632 | 58,670,919 | 24,038,805 | |||
| 2010/11 | 4,322,654 | 3,825,383 | 899,531 | 21,106,344 | 52,383,926 | 21,774,397 | |||
Source: Tourism Research Australia, Unpublished data from the National Visitor Survey and International Visitor Survey. Note: "--" represents unavailable data or data that has been suppressed due to a sample size of 40 or less. | |||||||||
| Visitor nights - Percentage | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cairns - 2010/11 to 2023/24 | Cairns | Regional QLD | |||||||
| Year | International Visitor Nights(%) | Domestic Visitor Nights(%) | Domestic Daytrips(%) | International Visitor Nights(%) | Domestic Visitor Nights(%) | Domestic Daytrips(%) | |||
| 2023/24 | 36.7 | 53.8 | 9.5 | 19.7 | 59.0 | 21.3 | |||
| 2022/23 | -- | 85.8 | 14.2 | -- | 74.7 | 25.3 | |||
| 2021/22 | -- | 87.8 | 12.2 | -- | 75.3 | 24.7 | |||
| 2020/21 | -- | 77.8 | 22.2 | -- | 72.1 | 27.9 | |||
| 2019/20 | -- | 79.2 | 20.8 | -- | 70.4 | 29.6 | |||
| 2018/19 | 43.5 | 44.2 | 12.3 | 20.4 | 57.5 | 22.1 | |||
| 2017/18 | 41.5 | 48.6 | 9.9 | 21.5 | 56.3 | 22.2 | |||
| 2016/17 | 47.4 | 41.9 | 10.7 | 22.1 | 55.7 | 22.2 | |||
| 2015/16 | 46.1 | 46.4 | 7.5 | 22.3 | 54.3 | 23.5 | |||
| 2014/15 | 50.3 | 40.1 | 9.5 | 22.0 | 54.6 | 23.5 | |||
| 2013/14 | 43.2 | 48.5 | 8.2 | 21.8 | 55.2 | 23.0 | |||
| 2012/13 | 48.5 | 38.7 | 12.8 | 21.5 | 54.6 | 23.9 | |||
| 2011/12 | 42.9 | 44.6 | 12.5 | 21.0 | 56.1 | 23.0 | |||
| 2010/11 | 47.8 | 42.3 | 9.9 | 22.2 | 55.0 | 22.9 | |||
Source: Tourism Research Australia, Unpublished data from the National Visitor Survey and International Visitor Survey. Note: "--" represents unavailable data or data that has been suppressed due to a sample size of 40 or less. Please refer to specific data notes for more information | |||||||||
