EXPENDITURE by overnight visitors to the Great Ocean Road has slumped by $78 million in 12 months.
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Tourism Victoria’s latest fact sheet shows estimated expenditure by international overnight visitors to the iconic coastal precinct was $80m at the rate of $483 per person for the year to September compared with $771 for the corresponding period in 2012 when the total was $118m.
Domestic overnight tourists spent $950m in the 12 months to September at a rate of $390 a person while in the Grampians they spent $214m at an average $291 per person. In both regions spending was down slightly compared with 12 months earlier.
However, the numbers of international overnight visitors rose slightly by 8.5 per cent to 166,000 in 12 months and 1.5 per cent since the year 2000.
The Grampians region boasted a 10.8 per cent rise to 47,000 in 12 months, but that was 2.4 per cent below what it was in 2000.
The domestic day trippers to the ocean road spent $449m at $93 per person while in the Grampians they spent $81m at $106 per visit.
Domestic overnight visitor numbers grew more strongly in the Grampians which posted an 11 per cent rise in 12 months to 734,000 while Great Ocean Road numbers fell 0.6 per cent to 2.4 million, which was still by far the biggest attracting region outside Melbourne which recorded 4.5 per cent growth to 7.1 million.
The Great Ocean Road scored well for interstate overnight visitors with a 5.8 per cent rise to 364,000.
Nationally, domestic overnight visitation increased by 4.1 per cent with NSW up 5.4 per cent, Queensland 1.9 per cent and Victoria 1.3 per cent.
For the international sector, education visitors accounted for the largest proportion of expenditure in Victoria followed by people on business.
Chinese accounted for 23.9 per cent of international visitor expenditure with $1.1 billion at $3446 per visit.