Bowen lures European tourists to its beaches and reef

The total number of domestic and international visitors has also smashed previous records with 47,812 this past financial year compared to 42,945 two years ago - an 11 per cent increase.

Recently published figures from Bowen Tourism & Business show international visitor numbers rose from 664 to 3600 in the past 12 months.

Bowen Tourism & Business manager Leanne Abernethy said Europeans made up the majority of international visitors with Germans making up 20 per cent of that figure.

"There's also Americans, quite a few from the UK and then the Netherlands and a lot of Kiwis.

"In terms of the international visitors, once the borders opened that's when people started to come back."

As to domestic visitors, Ms Abernethy said Queenslanders had been looking at their own backyard since Covid with a lot buying caravans.

"We refer to Bowen as the hidden gem at the top of the Whitsundays and I think that during Covid we had so many visitors that decided they wanted to come back and the word started to get out about Bowen," she said.

"We're only 5 km off the highway and it's one of the few places in Queensland where you can snorkel right off the beach as we have fringing reef - and it's basically a big country town which happens to be on the beach."

Ms Abernethy said more than 47,000 visitors visited either the Bowen Visitor Information Centre or the information booth at Bowen's front beach in the 2022/23 financial year.

Two years ago, the number of visitors was 42,945, an 11 per cent increase, she said.

"We certainly think next year will be strong, but I wouldn't predict it will be a record because 47,000 is a lot of people, but we certainly know there are strong bookings going forward," she said.

"Right at the moment it's difficult to get a powered site if you're a caravanner in Bowen because we've got eight caravan parks and they're got really, really strong bookings over the coming months and so have the resorts."

On June 28, a record number of 512 people visited the centre breaking the previous daily record of 439 set back in September 2020 while June was the biggest month for visitors to date with 6763 at the centre near the Big Mango and another 1124 travellers at the info booth near the beach.

Ms Abernethy said locals were quite happy with all the visiting tourists as it was a good economic boost to the town.

"We've traditionally relied on the grey nomad market and have always had a lot of southerners who come up here and stay for two to three months at a time in the caravan parks," she said.

"But, younger people are coming as well. We've got a lot of families during the school holidays.

"I'd just encourage people to come and check out beautiful Bowen."