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The Sunshine Coast offers a perfect blend of outdoor adventure, natural beauty, cultural experiences and relaxation, making it a compelling destination for both Australian and international travellers.

The region is currently the second most visited region in Queensland (behind Brisbane). It is in the top five most visited tourism regions in regional Australia and welcomed more visitors than both Adelaide and Hobart in 2023.

  • Nature and outdoors
  • Arts and culture
  • Health and wellbeing
  • Retail and markets
  • Food and beverage
  • Craft breweries
  • Farmgate experiences
  • Sporting precincts
  • Diverse calendar of events

VISITOR GROWTH2

  • 15.1% visitation
  • 12% domestic overnight and international visitors
  • 17% growth in day visitors
  • 11.6% increase in visitor nights year on year
11 million

total visitors (2023)2

Domestic visitor nights

(year ending December 2023)2

  • 15 million visitor nights
  • 55% from intrastate
  • 3.6 nights average length of stay
International overnight visitors

(year ending December 2023)2

  • 308,000 international overnight visitors
  • 14.4 nights average length of stay
  • 4,439,000 visitor nights

Drive market opportunities

Intrastate visitors make up 68% of all domestic visitor nights.

Of these, 37% are from Brisbane and 23% from the regional Queensland.

Strong opportunities exist for new hotel entrants to capture a slice of the south east Queensland drive market throughout the year.

The right product, at the right price point in the right location will best capture these opportunities.

Reference list

  1. Queensland Accommodation Report January 2023
  2. Sunshine Coast Regional Snapshot, Tourism and Events Queensland, year ending December 2023

Sunshine Coast Investment Prospectus: Hotel Edition

Download the special edition to learn why 2150 new internationally branded and operated hotel rooms and a further 300 boutique hotel rooms are needed on the Sunshine Coast

Find out more

More from this special feature

More from this special feature

Hotel Investment Incentives

If you build, own or operate hotels - the Sunshine Coast wants to talk to you! On 26 August, Council took a strong step forward in attracting new hotel development in the region by approving part one of a specialised package of incentives to encourage new hotel construction and operation within specific areas of the Sunshine Coast.

Demand for hotel development

Sunshine Coast Council is actively seeking to attract up to 1800 new-build internationally-branded and operated hotel rooms over the next decade.

Undersupply driving demand

With 70% of the market already dedicated to providing self-catering accommodation, the region is significantly undersupplied to meet the needs of a growing overnight visitor economy.

Want to know more?

Speak to Alex

Visitors

  • 7.7 million total visitors (2019
  • 2.73 million overnight visitors (2019)
  • 10.3 million visitor nights
  • 4.97 million day visitors
  • Average length of stay = 3.7 nights

Domestic visitors

  • 8.7 million visitor nights
  • 2.59 million domestic overnight
  • Average length of stay = 3.4 nights

International visitors

  • 140,800 international visitors
  • 1.53 million visitor nights
  • Average length of stay = 10.9 nights

Type of visitor accommodation used (visitor nights)