WMD spins shocking tourism stats

Update: 9.00am Sunday June 23, 2013
Whitsundays slips out of Top 20 destinations for Aussies

The latest Domestic Tourism statistics have been released by Tourism Research Australia, a division of the Commonwealth Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism - Full PDF Report here.

Unfortunately, we can't give you any further details (as we did in the past) as the Whitsundays has now slid out of the Top 20 favoured destinations by fellow Australians.

The TRA only publish detailed stats for the Top 20 destinations in Australia - Full PDF Report here.


Saturday June 22, 2013
Aussie visitors to the Whitsundays plummet 19%
During March 2012 to 2013, WMD (Tourism Whitsundays) was managed by Caretaker CEO Danielle Krista (nee Seymour - continues to be head of Marketing), and later, the new CEO, Danial Rochford.

During almost all of that same period,

Visitors from other parts of Queensland to the Whitsundays plunged a massive 28% compared to the same period a year before;

Other Queenslanders visiting the Whitsundays - Full Report by Tourism Queensland

Total Australian visitors to the Whitsundays plummeted 19% compared to the same period a year before.

Total Australian visitors to the Whitsundays - Full Report by Tourism Queensland

A press release to the media from WMD yesterday however, wanted to paint a rosier picture on the devastating stats by only highlighting that tourism numbers from Sydney and Melbourne were up 4%. There was no mention in the article of the plunge in domestic tourism overall (down 19%), or the huge plummet in fellow Queensland visitations (down 28%). Here is the ABC's interpretation of the WMD Press Release:

ABC News, Friday 21 June 2013 - Full Article

You would expect an organization (which gets millions of dollars from the governments and its members), to tell you the real results of their efforts to market the Whitsundays to fellow Australians.

Do you think WMD, (ex Tourism Whitsundays) should  be telling you the full story so you can properly plan for the future, or continue to give a skewered look at the numbers so your business planning is contrary to the real environment?