Tourism Research Australia latest data shows visitor economy recovery for Western Australia and Queensland

Tourism Research Australia has released its International and National Visitor Survey data which shows Western Australia's visitor economy to have broken yet another record with $17.9 billion spent in WA by travellers in the Year Ending March 2024, while international visitor spend in the period saw Queensland surpassing 2019 levels, as the state tracks ahead of the national average in recovering international spend.

Western Australia
Tourism Research Australia data shows WA's tourism recovery has led to a spending increase of $200 million compared to YE December 2023, which is $4.4 billion or 32% ahead of the 2019 pre-pandemic figure.

Another spend milestone has been achieved, with international visitors surpassing the 2019 value for the first time, reaching $2.5 billion or 3% greater than the pre-pandemic value.

These results have been fuelled by a boost in spend by visitors from China, with the country reclaiming its pre-pandemic position as the number one market for Western Australia when ranked by visitor spend.

The spend for visitors from China reached $303 million in YE March 2024, up from $230 million in YE December 2023, and ahead of the second largest visitor spend market, Singapore, by $45 million.

Chinese visitors are returning to WA at a faster rate than the national average, with the volume of Chinese visitors to the State now just 10% behind 2019 figures, compared to 49% nationally.

The uplift in spend follows the special flights between Shanghai and Perth, which operated for four weeks between January and February 2024.

It also comes a month after China Southern Airlines announced resumption of its non-stop service between Guangzhou and Perth from November 2024, which is further expected to boost tourism with an additional 41,000 inbound seats to WA each year.

Results for WA also show it was the top performing state in Australia in terms of total visitor spend versus 2019, with growth of 32% ahead of the total national growth of 25%, and the top performing state in terms of overnight visitors compared to 2019.

Queensland
Tourism Research Australia data shows Queensland’s visitor economy reached $34.1 billion in overnight expenditure (OVE) from 24.9 million domestic and 2.1 million international visitors in the year ending March 2024.

In the year ended March 2024, Queensland’s international OVE hit a new high of $6.1 billion – a 100.9% recovery when compared to 2019 – with its top five source markets by OVE being New Zealand, China, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the United States of America.

New Zealand was Queensland’s biggest source market with visitation close to what it was before COVID-19 at 93.5%, while visitors also tended to spend more time in the state. Visitors from New Zealand and the USA both generated more OVE than ever before, whilst the UK and Japan source markets also exceeded the amount of OVE generated in 2019.

The state also welcomed a record 95,000 visitors from South Korea and 72,000 from Canada, while a total of 27,000 arrivals from Thailand represent a 41.4% increase when compared with 2019.

Two regions reached new international OVE records. They were Brisbane ($3.2 billion) and Sunshine Coast ($371.1 million). In addition, the Whitsundays ($171.1 million), Southern Great Barrier Reef ($92.5million), Fraser Coast ($59.9million) and Outback Queensland ($17.9million) surpassed their respective 2019 international OVE levels.

Tourism Research Australia's International and National Visitor Survey results are the official sources of visitor statistics for Australia, and can be viewed at: www.tra.gov.au/en/domestic/domestic-tourism-results.html 

Image top. Karijini National Park Red Gorge hike and cycle trail secures $2.5 million. Credit: Explore Parks WA - Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions; image above: Sunshine Coast Coolum Beach. Credit TEQ