Australia's domestic tourism market thriving

Australia's domestic tourism market has continued to grow, according to figures released on Wednesday by Tourism Research Australia.

Australians increased their spending on overnight trips by 5 percent to 58.3 billion Australian dollars (42.88 billion U.S. dollars), while the amount spent on day trips grew 5 percent to 19.3 billion Australian dollars (14.2 billion U.S. dollars).

The figures confirmed how important tourism is to Australia's economy, with both domestic and international tourism contributing 115.5 billion Australian dollars (84.98 billion U.S. dollars) for the year ending March 2016, an increase of 8 percent.

Queensland state tourism minister Kate Jones said that the figures revealed more Australians are choosing to visit the state of Queensland than ever before.

"Queensland is emerging as the shining star in the Australian tourism landscape as we begin to focus on the huge range of unmatched experiences people can only enjoy right here," Jones said.

"In the year to March 2016, the number of Australians visiting Queensland grew 9 percent while New South Wales grew 6 percent and Victoria 7 percent."

Jones noted tourism growth in tropical north Queensland was also significant.

"Tropical North Queensland saw a 43 percent increase in holiday visitors to 1.1 million, 33.5 percent increase in total visitors to 2.2 million and 18.8 percent increase in total visitor nights to 10.5 million," she said. Endit