Cairns

Visitors and nights

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.

Data source

Tourism Research Australia – Survey data

Please note that the Tourism Research Australia (TRA) data is survey based and the sample size affects data reliability and confidentiality. For this reason, TRA requires the suppression of all data items based on a sample size of less than 40 respondents. Therefore, data that does not fit this sample size limit is not included in the tables.
International visitor data at the LGA level is not available from the TRA from March 2020 to December 2022, due to the border closure impacts on sample sizes. This means there are no LGA based international visitor estimates for 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23. See the International Visitor Survey methodology for further information.
Current benchmark:
Measure:
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Domestic overnight visitors
Cairns - 2010/11 to 2023/24CairnsRegional QLDCairns as a % of Regional QLD
YearVisitorsVisitor nights% Change from previous yearAverage length of stay (days)VisitorsVisitor nights% Change from previous yearAverage length of stay (days)VisitorsVisitor nights
5 year average1,246,3425,298,710--4.219,384,89467,524,605--3.56.47.8
2023/241,386,4675,613,919-16.64.021,427,46070,866,308-1.53.36.57.9
2022/231,543,3026,732,511+21.24.420,246,92971,969,024+5.73.67.69.4
2021/221,200,6215,554,225+25.94.619,518,68368,071,878+5.43.56.28.2
2020/211,078,4424,411,914+5.54.118,903,68964,605,217+4.03.45.76.8
2019/201,037,7604,180,980-18.64.016,932,38062,110,599-16.63.76.16.7
2018/191,207,8355,134,419+2.54.320,807,03774,460,659+12.43.65.86.9
2017/181,228,3525,007,163+21.14.118,371,70866,218,384+8.73.66.77.6
2016/171,013,9994,135,195-14.34.117,250,95560,900,553+3.53.55.96.8
2015/161,101,6354,825,743+24.54.417,255,62658,819,437+0.33.46.48.2
2014/15938,4573,874,888-21.74.116,675,64258,624,694+2.93.55.66.6
2013/141,100,0294,948,080+31.84.515,807,36456,964,290-3.13.67.08.7
2012/13906,3873,753,110-11.74.115,775,20458,793,475+0.23.75.86.4
2011/12997,1084,250,587+11.14.316,154,21158,670,918+12.03.66.27.2
2010/11776,6253,825,382--4.914,374,91252,383,925--3.65.47.3

Source: Tourism Research Australia , Unpublished data from the International Visitor Survey 2023/24. Note: "--" represents unavailable data or data that has been suppressed due to a sample size of 40 or less. Suppressed figures are still used in the 5 year average calculations.

Please refer to specific data notes for more information
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Cairns Regional Council

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