Attracting visitors to Cairns after COVID-19: A comparison of the domestic tourism market before and after the pandemic

COVID-19 has tested the resilience of tourism destinations, businesses and tourists. For some destinations, the loss of the international market has necessitated a shift to the domestic market. This research seeks to understand changes in the domestic tourism market to Cairns, Australia. Chi-squire analyses compared visitor profiles before and after the state-wide lockdown in March-May 2020, and a two-step cluster analysis was employed to identify groups of post-pandemic visitors. Significant differences were found between pre-and post-pandemic visitor groups. The findings highlight the importance of understanding how markets can change quickly and the need to rapidly respond to changes in demand to enhance destination competitiveness in a dynamic, post-pandemic environment.