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

In addition, there was statistical significance at the 90 percent level for businesses likely to
have a direct / indirect impact from tourism and location of business – with 62 percent of
Coastal businesses in the ‘direct impact’ category versus 30 percent in the hinterland areas.
Fifty (50) percent of suburban businesses were categorised as being a business that were
likely to have a direct impact from tourism.

Most businesses surveyed (60 percent) expected either some or significant growth in the
foreseeable future (refer Appendix 5) and 33 percent of businesses surveyed expected no
change. Only 7 percent of businesses expected their performance to decrease over this
time. There was no significant statistical differences between these outcomes based on
industry type or location.

There was a spread of turnover ranges within the business’s surveyed, with 77 percent of
respondents indicating their annual turnover less than $2 million (refer Appendix 5). Again,
There was no significant statistical difference in this distribution across Noosa, regardless of
industry type or location.

The analysis of findings is presented in Section 5.


Residents Survey

A statistically valid survey with 300 residents across Noosa was conducted by Q&A
Marketing Pty Ltd utilising a CATI. This survey emulated the Tourism and Events Queensland
Social Indicators Survey25 and obtained information regarding the following issues:

     •   Demographic questions
     •   Residents’ feeling about their local area
     •   Feelings towards tourism
     •   Preferred tourism development growth
     •   Level of contact with tourists
     •   Extent of Agreement with Positive statements regarding Tourism
     •   Extent of Agreement with Negative statements regarding Tourism

For a population of around 52,000 (Noosa’s population), a sample of around 270 is
considered statistically valid for results with a confidence level of 95 percent and margin of
error 6 percent (Survey Monkey Sample Calculator). Furthermore, statically validity as can
be demonstrated through a comparison with the sample size utilised for the TEQ Social
Indicators Survey. The TEQ Social Indicators Survey, a highly respected survey, utilises a 300
across the whole of the Sunshine Coast Tourism Region. Thus, given that the Noosa Shire is
only a portion of this, the sample size used in the Tourism Noosa survey was over 6 times
the size of the TEQ sample size for the Sunshine Coast.

The survey was stratified by location (Coastal/Eastern Beaches - Peregian to Sunshine Beach
– 79 respondents; Noosa Heads & Noosaville – 127 respondents; Tewantin – 60
respondents; Hinterland/North Shore - Cooroy to Kin Kin – 34 respondents), as well as by

25
  https://teq.queensland.com/research-and-insights/domestic-research/regional-summaries/sunshine-
coast/sunshine-coast-social-indicators-2013

                                                      78