Townsville City Council

Tourism visitor summary

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

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:
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Visitor nights - Numbers
Townsville City Council - 2010/11 to 2023/24Townsville City Council Regional QLD
YearInternational Visitor NightsDomestic Visitor NightsDomestic DaytripsInternational Visitor NightsDomestic Visitor NightsDomestic Daytrips
2023/241,037,1583,472,3401,048,98223,637,86870,866,30825,634,628
2022/23--3,458,6171,264,756--71,969,02424,399,611
2021/22--3,428,949909,475--68,071,87922,286,239
2020/21--2,848,630921,217--64,605,21724,982,540
2019/20--3,100,579927,145--62,110,59926,131,070
2018/191,098,2083,892,2791,123,73226,376,45274,460,66028,651,778
2017/181,059,5693,166,907879,38225,232,89666,218,38426,065,178
2016/171,114,8612,797,5501,213,43224,173,44760,900,55424,241,433
2015/161,674,8243,521,8471,192,54124,132,76758,819,43725,434,052
2014/151,325,3903,007,8731,145,71623,583,07058,624,69425,211,985
2013/141,095,3103,349,796884,25622,475,06456,964,29123,736,408
2012/131,380,4603,063,2581,022,47023,156,37158,793,47625,769,791
2011/121,007,1133,588,383852,29121,964,63258,670,91924,038,805
2010/111,189,3312,133,984--21,106,34452,383,92621,774,397

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
Townsville City Council - 2010/11 to 2023/24Townsville City Council Regional QLD
Year International Visitor Nights(%)Domestic Visitor Nights(%)Domestic Daytrips(%)International Visitor Nights(%)Domestic Visitor Nights(%)Domestic Daytrips(%)
2023/2418.762.518.919.759.021.3
2022/23--73.226.8--74.725.3
2021/22--79.021.0--75.324.7
2020/21--75.624.4--72.127.9
2019/20--77.023.0--70.429.6
2018/1918.063.718.420.457.522.1
2017/1820.862.017.221.556.322.2
2016/1721.754.623.722.155.722.2
2015/1626.255.118.722.354.323.5
2014/1524.254.920.922.054.623.5
2013/1420.662.916.621.855.223.0
2012/1325.356.018.721.554.623.9
2011/1218.565.915.621.056.123.0
2010/1135.864.2--22.255.022.9

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
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City of Townsville

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