Domestic visitors set new Australian domestic spending record

Australia’s domestic visitor economy continues to set new records with the latest figures for 2015 revealing strong growth in overnight trips.

The National Visitor Survey released today by Tourism Research Australia has confirmed that in the year ending December 2015, there were 87.1 million overnights trips (up 7%), 322 million visitor nights (up 4%) and $57.9 billion in overnight expenditure (up 6%).

Daytrip expenditure rose by 6% to $19 billion for the year, alongside a 9% increase in daytrips to 179.6 million.

Commenting on the findings, Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF) Chief Executive Margy Osmond stated “this is another fantastic result for Australia’s domestic visitor economy and just goes to show that the Australian love affair with seeing and experiencing the delights of our own island nation is only growing.

“NSW continues to lead the charge with $16.1 billion in overnight visitor expenditure followed closely by Queensland ($14.5 billion) and Victoria ($12.1 billion).

“The ACT (25%) and Tasmania (20%) have seen double digit growth in overnight visitor expenditure in the past 12 months – a great result for these two markets that highlights the value of investing in the visitor economy. Tasmania is a standout with double digit growth in all three indicators.

“Western Australia ($6.7 billion), South Australia ($3.5 billion) and the Northern Territory ($1.5 billion) are performing very strongly with at least 6% growth in visitor expenditure over the past year.

“Together with the strong performance in Australia’s international visitor market, total overnight visitor expenditure reached a record $94.5 billion meaning our nation’s visitor economy is well positioned to be a job and economic growth generator for years to come.

“Today’s figures only serve to emphasise why Government should back the visitor economy as one of the pillars of Australia’s future economy.

“A strong partnership between Government and industry is the approach we need to take the visitor economy to the next level, by encouraging more Australians to explore their homeland and attracting more international visitors to our shores, through cutting the cost of visas and improving the visitor experience.”

To view the latest National Visitor Survey go to Tourism Research Australia’s State of the Industry 2015 report go to www.tra.gov.au

Images: Victoria's Great Ocean Road (top) and Luna Park Sydney (below).

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