THE Far North's tourism industry is still reeling from last summer's natural disasters, with domestic visitor numbers, spending and hotel room prices dropping.
The annual National Visitors Survey shows 1.3 million domestic tourists visited the region from July last year to June, an 11 per cent drop compared with 2009-2010.
Tourism expenditure was down 13 per cent to $1.4 billion.
Industry leaders say the region suffered four months of setbacks because of the southeast Queensland floods and cyclone Yasi.
"Those events have taken their toll," Tourism Tropical North Queensland chief executive Rob Giason said.
He said would-be travellers were deterred by reports that the entire state was under water during the tragic floods that devastated the southeast.
"The floods were just after Christmas and the perception was created that the Far North was impacted, which was not the case," Mr Giason said.
"It did have some after-effect; people threw geography out the window and didn’t have an understanding of where it was happening."
Cyclone Yasi dented domestic tourists also but bumped up the number of business travellers, mainly service providers and workers responding to rebuilding projects on the Cassowary Coast.
Mr Giason said the tough economic times also was a factor in the decrease in tourists.
The visitor survey comes as a Hotels.com Hotel Price Index report shows the average price of accommodation in Cairns fell 10 per cent to $117 a night for the first six months of the year.
Australia-wide, the average room rate rose 9 per cent.
Cairns was ranked Australia’s fourth most popular destination for domestic travellers and third for international visitors. Port Douglas was the eighth most popular for both markets.
Mr Giason said Cairns room prices were affected by visitors unwilling to travel to the region during and after the natural disasters.
"Because of heighten-ed competition and supply-demand changing, there have been heavy discounts," he said.
The Far North had experienced a steady increase in tourists since June, Mr Giason said.