SWAN Hill received huge boost in tourism in the last financial year, with domestic overnight visitation up by around 30 percent on the previous year.
Tourism Research Australia has just released its National Visitor Survey, showing Swan Hill received approximately 361,000 domestic overnight visitors in the 12 months ending in June, up 27.7 percent on the year before.
According to the report, visitors spent 917,000 nights in the region, which was also up by 30.6 percent on the year ending June 2014.
Swan Hill even increased its share of visitors to the Murray region, with 14 percent of its visitors and 12.6 percent of its visitation nights, up 2.3 and 2.9 percentage points respectively.
Holidaying was the main reason for the tourism boost, being cited by 46 percent of visitors as their reason for visiting the area, while fewer people gave ‘business’ as their reason.
Swan Hill Rural City Council economic and community development manager Steve Matthews said it was “good to see some positive trends developing”.
“Compared to the year ending June 2014, holiday [as a reason to visit] increased by 4.6 percentage points while business declined by 10.9 percentage points, so more people were coming here for holidays as opposed to business,” Mr Matthew said.
“I think the continued promotion that Swan Hill Inc do about Swan Hill being a great destination, the fantastic attractions we’ve got like the Pioneer Settlement and the home of the Catalina in Lake Boga, and interest that has been garnered through the construction of Chisholm Motorsports Complex have been very positive.
For more on this story, grab a copy of Wednesday’s Guardian (November 18).
