The Visitor Economy, including leisure, business and event visitors, is a vital sector of the Bunbury Geographe (BunGeo) region. It provides jobs and small business opportunities for the region, diversifies our economic base and helps build quality of life in the region.
The visitor economy is fast growing in significance, now recognised as one of the six main export industries for Australia. This story is consistent with BunGeo, where tourism is the largest value-add industry in the region.
According to the latest National Visitor Survey, a record number of visitors have flocked to the Bunbury Geographe region, pouring value dollars into the visitor economy for the 12 months to June:
- International Overnight Visitors – 33.5% increase
- Domestic Overnight Visitors – 22.8% increase
- International Visitor Nights – 21.2% decrease (due to a drop in the length of stay)
- Domestic Visitor Nights – 45% increase
- Intrastate Daytrips – 28.1% increase
Bunbury has experienced phenomenal growth with an 83.7% increase in domestic visitor nights.
Our growth surpassed that of the overall South West, which experienced a 2.6% and 14.8% increase in international and intrastate overnight visitors respectively.
Monitoring
In conjunction with our LGAs, Australia’s South West, the South West Development Commission, and Regional Development Australia, we also monitor the visitor economy, including events, using REMPLAN, SpendMapp and CommBank’s Daily IQ & Local Economic Impact tool.
The Value of the Visitor Economy
Defining the Visitor Economy
The term ‘visitor economy’ refers to the production of goods and services for consumption by visitors, which includes the industries that directly serve visitors, such as accommodation, transport providers, attractions, car hire companies, and tour companies, as well as those involved indirectly, such as retail and food production. This recognises that visitor activity contributes to investment and jobs across a range of industry sectors. Visitors include leisure tourists – people travelling and staying outside their usual place of residence for a limited time period for the purpose of a holiday, sight-seeing and recreation, plus people travelling for other reasons such as visiting friends and relatives, business, work, or education.
Other Sources
Tourism WA Research and Reports
Tourism Research Australia
South West Development Commission
