Latest figures show the south-west area has defied state trends by attracting more overseas and domestic visitors.

Shipwreck Coast marketing director Carole Reid said there was a 1.3 per cent rise in the number of people extending their Great Ocean Road trip to the Shipwreck Coast, with international visitor numbers up by 4.3 per cent.

The figures are the latest available from the national visitor survey to the end of 2009.

Ms Reid said domestic visitors from throughout Australia stayed in the area for a total of 1.497 million nights during the year, with the majority of interstate visitors coming from South Australia.

"One of the good things for our region is that of all the Great Ocean Road, we have the highest number who stop in paid accommodation."

Statistics show more than 66 per cent of Australian visitors to this area spend the night in hotels, motels and similar facilities compared to 26 per cent who stay with friends and relatives.

At the eastern end of the Great Ocean Road, nearly 41 per cent choose to stay with friends and family.

Ms Reid said the difference between the Shipwreck Coast and the Geelong-Otway areas was due to the large number of people who owned holiday homes in the coastal strip along the Bellarine Peninsula, the Surf Coast and the Otways.

The Shipwreck Coast recorded 65,800 international visitors last year, with an average length of stay of 2.1 nights. Just 21 per cent stayed with family and friends compared to the Geelong-Otway region figure of 36 per cent.

Ms Reid said the district's biggest market was based in the United Kingdom, with more than 28 per cent of tourists travelling from that area.

Germany at 13.2 per cent, New Zealand at 11.1 per cent and the United States at 4.9 per cent were the next to line up for a Shipwreck Coast experience while tourist numbers from France and Scandanavia were also up.

Ms Reid said while China and India were strong growth markets for Australia as a whole, tourists from both countries did not commonly spend a night in the south-west, preferring to do day trips from Melbourne.