International visitors to the Gold Coast were steady over the year ending December 2010, an increase of 0.5% on the previous year however they spent 6% less on their trips to the tourism capital according to figures released today by Tourism Research Australia.

Gold Coast Tourism CEO Martin Winter said the results were anticipated given the strength of the dollar in 2010 and a changing mix of visitors to the Gold Coast.

“The Gold Coast tourism industry knows from experience that a strong Australian dollar weakens international visitor spend, so when the Australian dollar jumped from 85 cents to over parity last year we were anticipating a decline in international visitor spend, that is reflected in these numbers,” he said.

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