Tourism Research Australia’ has for the first time released ‘region specific’ figures that show tourism is worth more than $4.7 billion annually to the tropical north’s economy. With analyst predicting that the Australian dollar is set to remain low for years to come, these already strong figures look set to remain strong in the coming years.

The report says that the sector is directly worth $2.5 billion a year plus another $2.2bn indirectly; and employs 14,600 people directly with another 9000 flow-on jobs. The latest figures come as hotels report strong growth, the region’s casino recorded a jump in profit and bookings rise for cruise ships departing from the Port of Cairns, notes a report in the Cairns Post.

“Domestic overnight travellers contributed $2.1 billion, international tourists $1.3 billion and day-trippers $242 million. They spent $714 million on long-distance transport, $539 million on food and $490 million on accommodation.

“Cafes, restaurants and other food outlets employed the most people (2900), followed by hotels and other accommodation houses (2500), and retailers (2110).

Tourism Tropical North Queensland deputy chairman Ross Steele said the figures proved how substantial the industry was to the region’s economy.

“It really shows at the moment. It is very buoyant at the moment from a tourism point of view…The hotel operators are having a very good tourism season, very strong domestically and internationally. Tour operators say their figures are up on this time last year,” said Mr Steele.

According Mr Steele, the tourists came mainly from New Zealand, Germany, US and UK while Asian tourists are starting to feature more prominently in the growth numbers.

Herron Todd White research director Rick Carr said tourism was “a huge contributor to the local economy” but warned it was “fundamentally important to continue to invest in the industry to underpin its future economic growth and job creation”.