GOLD COAST VISITOR NUMBERS RISE AGAIN, DRIVEN BY CHINA MARKET

The International Visitor Survey (IVS) figures released today show record growth for the Gold Coast with 1.056 million visitors in the 12 months to June 2017, up 7.2 per cent on the previous year.

The Gold Coast continues to be a primary international holiday destination for Queensland, directly generating $1.2 billion in visitor expenditure for the city.

"These are great figures ahead of our peak summer holiday period," says Paul Donovan, Gold Coast Tourism chairman.

"Industry sentiment and confidence in the Gold Coast continues to grow ahead of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, and these figures indicate the international visitor trend largely driven by China shows no signs of slowing down."

China once again accounted for the largest number of international visitors with 303,000, up by 7.3 per cent, followed by New Zealand (206,000) and the United Kingdom (70,000). Japanese visitors (68,000) also flocked to the Gold Coast with a 19.5 per cent increase in numbers equating to 11,000 extra visitors year-on-year.

Mr Donovan encourages the tourism sector to take advantage of free workshops such as the City of Gold Coast lead 'Be My Guest' program to elevate industry customer service to benchmark levels.

"This is an opportune time to enhance our overarching visitor experience as an ongoing legacy for Destination Gold Coast."

The city's education sector also continued to strengthen its position as an economic driver for the region, attracting an 11.1 per cent increase in international education visitation.

Overall, Gold Coast visitation figures matched both state and national growth rates, with a record-breaking 7.8 million international visitors Australia-wide in the 12 months to June 2017.