Through the application of spatial econometric techniques, this paper examines the spatial patterns of tourism and the role of the underlying geography of urban economic spaces in modelling Tourism Related Employment (TRE) across the South East Queensland (SEQ) region in Australia. Despite a decline in the degree of inequality in the distribution of TRE over the last decade, the SEQ region exhibits a high concentration of TRE along the coast as well as manifesting a strong spatial dependency, that means areas of high employment in the tourism sector tend to have neighbours with high values or vice versa. The economies of agglomeration, dwelling density and accessibility to shopping centres are found to be significant positive predictors of TRE; whilst the proximity to industrial areas and closeness to open spaces are identified to exert negative externalities.