“Looking at figures for the 12 months ending March 2008, compared with the previous year, Augusta-Margaret River shows visitor growth of about nine per cent and visitor nights by about 16 per cent,” Ms Buckland said.

“If we look at the long term trend for Augusta-Margaret River we see that since 1999 visitor numbers have grown by 114 per cent.

“Recent media reports stated that Augusta-Margaret River experienced a 22 per cent drop in visitor numbers between 2002-2004 and 2005-2007, however, comparing three-year blocks of statistics neither reflects the current situation nor the long term trend.

“The 2002-2004 average includes an extraordinary peak in domestic tourism which occurred in 2003.

“This peak followed the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, and the demise of Ansett Airlines shortly thereafter.

“Following these incidents, fewer Australians travelled overseas and instead travelled within Australia, particularly within their own State–a trend experienced across the nation.

“Since 2003, figures have come down from this unusual peak and now appear to be returning to a more normal long term growth trend.”

The statistics for visitor numbers and nights are provided by Tourism Research Australia, not the Australian Bureau of Statistics.