Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
well as at the state and regional levels. Data were derived from the two
main survey instruments used by TRA - the National Visitor Survey and
the International Visitor Survey.
In Australia there are 83 tourism regions, as defined by TRA. The available
TRA tourism profile data for 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 were examined for
the state of Victoria. Regional tourism profiles prior to 2008-2009 are not
available. Each region within the state of Victoria was then considered,
to ascertain whether the general pattern of declining domestic travel in
Australia was also evident in terms of people staying with friends and
relatives in Victoria. There were 17 regions in Victoria in which there were
data available across the two years that had a sample size high enough to
be considered valid and publishable. The data from those 17 regions were
analysed.
Research Findings
As revealed in Table 6.1, the number of visitors who were staying with
friends and relatives in the state of Victoria increased from 2008-2009 to
2009-2010. The length of stay did not change. In 12 out of the 17 regions
(71%) the number of visitors increased. For some of those regions, the
increases were considerable. High Country recorded the highest growth rate
in VFR numbers (31.7%), followed by Bendigo (24.8%) and Geelong (20.2%).
An examination of population growth rate data (Australian Bureau
of Statistics, 2011) did not reveal any linkage between regions that were
growing fastest and VFR growth rates. In fact, Ballarat is experiencing one
of the highest population growth rates in Victoria but had one of the lowest
growth rate increases in VFR numbers. Populations in Bendigo and Geelong
are growing slower than Ballarat yet their VFR numbers grew much faster
than Ballarat. Therefore, while there is a relationship between population
and VFR (i.e. the more residents, the more people coming to visit those
residents), there was no relationship between the growth of populations
and VFR travellers.
While Victoria as a state did not see any change in the average length of
stay for VFRs, there were changes at a regional level in most areas. Ballarat
recorded a modest VFR growth rate of 4.8% but the average length of stay
increased 11.1%. Many of the other regions also saw an increase in the
average length of stay of VFRs, while four regions did not see any changes
and some saw declines.
The region that saw the greatest decline in VFR travel - in terms of both
visitor numbers and average length of stay - was Murray East. However,
this is one region that cannot be solely assessed in terms of the economic
conditions since it was one of the regions devastated by the bushfires in
February 2009. As a region heavily reliant on its river for visitation, it is
still suffering from the post-bushfire damage. The Department of Primary
