Tourism grows double national rate

New South Wales is Australia's number one state for international visitors, the number of nights a visitor stays and expenditure.

Coffs Coast Advocate

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TOURISM in NSW has grown at double the national rate during the last quarter, the state government says.

NSW had 5.2 per cent growth in visitor numbers over the June quarter compared to 2.1 per cent for the whole of Australia, Tourism Minister Jodi McKay said on Wednesday.

This is the third successive quarter of growth for tourism in NSW, which is Australia's number one state for international visitors, the number of nights a visitor stays and expenditure, Ms McKay said.

"NSW remains the world's favourite Australian destination attracting more than half of all overseas visitors (52.7 per cent) and more than a third (34.6 per cent) of nights," she said.

NSW received more than 2.78 million international visitors last financial year, injecting more than $5.8 billion into the NSW economy.

"This is really great news and reaffirms our position as the number one Australian destination for international visitors," Ms McKay said.