While the state benefitted from a surge in domestic tourism last year as border restrictions were dropped, it was now anticipating a downturn as consumer sentiment fell and higher interest rates and inflation impacted spending.

Nationally, Covid wiped about $150 billion from the tourism sector.

Accor Pacific chief executive Sarah Derry said rebuilding international tourism had to be the priority for Queensland.

“The reality is that Queensland is unlikely to see the inbound holiday market recover to 2019 levels for at least another year, if not longer, but at least the flow of international students, backpackers and skilled temporary workers is increasing the state’s employment resources,” she said.

She said the hotel chain’s performance in Queensland was hit by lower international airline capacity and China tourism was yet to reach 30 per cent of the pre-Covid level.

“This was impacting markets such as Cairns and the Gold Coast, though in 2022, international shortfalls were made up by the strength of the domestic leisure market,” she said.

The market did benefit from a surge in April with Easter and school holidays combining to generate demand.

The QTIC submission said before Covid, overnight visitor expenditure in Queensland was $69.9 million a day and while the state’s industry was resilient and showed positive signs of growth in 2022, that expenditure was still at $56.6 million a day, a difference of $5 billion over a year, as of December 2022.

There were also 5000 job vacancies and specific occupations were expected to see growth of about 34 per cent by 2025.

The submission said there was no confidence to invest without clear leadership and co-ordination between all levels of government and between departments to address operational issues and regulation.

“The adoption of a co-ordinator general of similar model, with a practical approach to help navigate legislation and policy, could create an environment to assist in minimising red tape and reducing legislative barriers,” the submission said.