Tourism in the Granite Belt Destination Report

The Granite Belt region /destination is a well-established tourism destination with wineries and national parks being prominent attractions but also featuring other attractions centred on locally produced food and beverages, heritage and museum attractions and a program of festivals and events. Tourism is facilitated by government and industry bodies that cooperate to support planning, marketing, promotion of visitor trails and events and a visitor centre. Data that is not generally published at the destination scale was assembled from Tourism Research Australia’s database to describe tourism in the destination. In summary, pre COVID 19, the Granite Belt destination had a fairly constant stream of visitors over the last 10 years. The March quarter consistently has the lowest visitor number of domestic visitors with the June and September quarters, which feature the colder weather and school holidays, the most popular. While there are relatively few international visitors, these people contribute to the destination by staying longer and working on properties. Pre COVID 19, the main source of visitors was domestic visitors, mainly from Southeast Queensland, travelling on day trips or short overnight trips of 1 to 3 days. Around 250,000 people visited the destination in 2019. This was made up of domestic overnight visitors 59%, domestic day trip visitors 39% and international visitors 2%. The destination attracts an older demographic (36% of visitors are over 55 years of age), and couples with no children in all age groups, and a smaller proportion of families with young children (10% of visitors). There is a clear seasonal element with the destination being more popular in the colder months of the June and September quarters, although efforts are being made to attract visitors in other months. Visitors engage in multiple activities while in the destination, with an average of three activities in addition to the usual social and eating and drinking elements of a holiday. For domestic overnight tourists, the most popular local activities were visiting wineries (26%), followed by bushwalking (21%) and visiting national parks (19%). Visiting markets also attracted 16% of these visitors. The three most popular local activities for day trippers were also visiting wineries (15%) and bushwalking (12%) and visiting national parks (7%). Tourists spent $79 million per year in the Granite Belt Destination, on average from 2015 to 2018. This was made up of $53 million from domestic overnight visitors, $13 million from domestic day trip visitors and $13 million from international visitors. An estimate of total full time equivalent jobs supported by this expenditure is approximately 553 jobs. The group of domestic overnight visitors who visited wineries spent $19 million in the Granite Belt destination. Due to small sample sizes, it is not possible to estimate the spending by day trip and international visitors who visited wineries. Therefore, the estimate of $19 million contribution to the region by winery visitors is conservative. Approximately 133 jobs are supported by this expenditure. Similarly, visitors who visited national parks spent $14 million in the Granite Belt destination, supporting approximately 98 jobs. These are not mutually exclusive groups because many visitors visited both wineries and national parks. The impact of COVID-19 on the destination has been mixed - the bushfires and then the pandemic have reduced visitor numbers at times over the past two years. There have also been times when visitor numbers have been higher than usual in the destination. The net effect on visitor numbers and expenditure by visitors to the Granite Belt destination is not available from published or unpublished statistics yet. Several opportunities for increasing the number and spending by tourists were identified by looking at the statistics and the gaps revealed. First, are the opportunities to increase tourism within current infrastructure and attractions, making better use of what is already in the destination by increasing the length of stay/ utilise weekdays and increasing visitors in low seasons. Second, the visitor statistics suggest gaps in the market with potential opportunities to appeal to new visitor groups (e.g., families, international visitors), expand existing popular attractions, market better and possibly add new attractions (e.g., night-time entertainment, indigenous and cultural tourism). A survey of 16 grape growers and wine producers included questions focussing on tourism in their operations and the destination. While only half of the respondents said they were interested in increasing tourism revenue from their own operations, the range of options mentioned included: using social media and online options better, add new experiences and events at the cellar door and on the property, expand on site accommodation and travel to promote the business. Looking to the broader destination, many positives were noted: friendly people, visitors meet business owners, the national park and scenic landscape, cold weather, 4 seasons, wineries, wine, quality of wine, education about wine, some good restaurants and accommodation, lots to do and an inexpensive destination. Negative perceptions and identifying barriers focused on: lack of dining options, lack of local produce featured in restaurants, staff shortages (including chefs), lack of accommodation, shops closed in the town, unstable water resources and poor road maintenance. Suggestions for useful government actions included: facilitating coordination of industry stakeholders for development, support and funding for local tourism organisations, marketing (destination and wine marketing), assisting to overcome staff shortages, support apprentices and staff training, fix the roads.

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