Drive tourism in Queensland

Benefits of drive tourism to rural and regional businesses

Businesses in rural and regional communities rely on income from drive tourists (on stopovers), as they are often encouraged to buy local tourism products and services, and basic travel necessities like fuel, food and other supplies. Drive tourism provides a number of benefits to businesses, including:

• increased profits
• job growth
• opportunities for new business start-up
• increased demand for new products and services
• opportunities for business collaboration
• addressing skills shortages by tapping into the skills of temporary visitors.

Key measures of success for Queensland's drive tourism market include the number of tourists embarking on self-drive journeys, the length of their journeys, the time they spend in particular places and the amount of money they spend. This market is expected to experience significant growth due to Australia's ageing population and a corresponding increase in retirees who travel around Australia.

Self-drive routes

Queensland has a number of popular self-drive routes. On a self-drive journey, tourists often drive from town to town, stopping over to sample products, services and experiences from local businesses.

If you are running a business along one of these popular self-drive routes you should consider how you can attract visitors to your business and take full advantage of the drive tourism market.

If you are looking at starting a business in regional Queensland, think about how you can take advantage of the nearest major self-drive routes and attract drive tourists to your business.

Some of Queensland's most popular self-drive routes include:

• Pacific Coast Way (Cairns to Brisbane)
• Adventure Way (Brisbane to South Australian border)
• Warrego Way (Brisbane to Charleville)
• Australia's Country Way (Wallangarra to Rockhampton)
• Great Inland Way (Hebel to Cairns)
• Great Tropical Drive (Townsville to Cairns)
• Savannah Way (Cairns to Northern Territory border)
• Matilda Country and Matilda Way (Cunnamulla to Karumba)
• Overlander's Way (Townsville to Northern Territory border).

Also consider...

• Find research and insights into domestic and international markets and destinations from Tourism and Events Queensland.
• Read domestic visitor profiles from Tourism Research Australia.
• Develop your unique selling points to market your products and services.