Australia’s tourism spending soars in first quarter of 2025

New data from Tourism Research Australia (TRA) has revealed that visitor spending in the first quarter of this year reached a record $52.6 billion, up 12% from the same period in 2024.

However, TRA's latest International Visitor Survey (IVS), shows that over a million fewer international travellers visited Australia last year compared to pre-pandemic 2019, although, despite the decrease, spending by the 8.3 million visitors to Australian reached a record $32.9 billion, driven in part by overseas students and backpackers.

The release of the TRA figures comes as the industry edges toward a full recovery from COVID-19 disruption, which has broadly seen domestic travel stagnate, while international flights match or surpass 2019 numbers.

China remains the largest contributor to tourism spending in Australia, accounting for 26%, followed by the UK at 6.9% and the USA at 6.5%.

The top reasons for travel to Australia in the year ending March 2025 were:

Holiday travel with 3.3 million trips
11% up on March 2024 levels.

Visiting friends and relatives
2.6 million trips. 3% up on March 2024 levels.

Spending in Australia
$5.3 billion. 12% up on March 2024 levels.

Business travel
772,000 trips. 4% up on March 2024 levels. Spending in Australia was $2 billion, 8% down on March 2024 levels.

Education
509,000 trips. This was 10% up on March 2024 levels. Spending in Australia was $12.5 billion, 11% up on March 2024 levels.

Click here to view the full IVS report on the TRA website.