2020-01-13 GC Agenda - Item 10 - Attachment 2 - The Value of Tourism to the Noosa Community October 2019 FINAL REPORT

Appendix 2: The Benefits and Impacts of Tourism – Literature
review

Economic Contribution of Tourism in the Australian Context

The economic benefits of tourism to
Queensland and Australia cannot be under-
stated. In various publications, total tourism
consumption nationally for 2016-17 was
between $110 billion and $136 billion16. Both
reports agree that almost three-quarters
(73%) of this contribution came from domestic
consumption, with the remaining from
international visitors, and that international
spend per visitor was nearly three times as
much as domestic.

Queensland’s share of this contribution was
around 23 percent, and depending on the
National figures utilised, equated to between
$25.4 billion to $30.6 billion17. This
represented around 8 percent of Gross State
Product and was an increase on the previous
12 months.

In terms of employment, tourism provided a
considerable number of jobs. In 2016-17,
tourism was estimated to account for 9.1
percent of all of Queensland’s employment. In
overall terms, tourism employed around 138,000 jobs directly and 217,000 Queenslanders
overall, which was more than the combined employment of agriculture, forestry and
fisheries, plus the mining sector. Not surprisingly, cafes, restaurants and takeaway food
services had the largest share of direct tourism jobs (39,000), followed by the retail trade
and accommodation sectors (23,000 and 20,000 jobs respectively)18.

In 2016-17, tourism generated $57.9 million a day in overnight visitor expenditure across the
State of Queensland. The positive economic impact that this has on a number of industries
– directly and indirectly – is considerable, and forecasts suggest that tourism expenditure is




16
   (Tourism and Events Queensland (TEQ), 2018; Tourism Research Australia’s (TRA’s) State Satellite Tourism
Accounts for 2016-17)

17
     ibid

18
     ibid

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