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Bulletin – December 2022 Australian Economy The Recovery in the Australian Tourism Industry

8 December 2022

Angelina Bruno, Kathryn Davis and Andrew Staib [*]

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The Australian tourism industry is gradually recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic that brought global travel to an unprecedented standstill. International tourism fell sharply in early 2020 and has only slowly recovered since restrictions were lifted in the first half of this year. By contrast, domestic tourism spending bounced back quickly as local restrictions eased and is now above pre-pandemic levels. This article outlines the recovery in the Australian tourism industry following the pandemic, the challenges the industry has faced in reopening, and the uncertainties around the outlook for the tourism industry over the next few years.

Introduction

Restrictions to contain the spread of COVID-19 and precautionary behaviour by consumers significantly disrupted the movement of people both domestically and internationally during the pandemic period. This had a devastating impact on many Australian businesses that provided services to domestic or international tourists. Nevertheless, many of these businesses have shown considerable resilience and flexibility, aided by a range of government support packages, and are now expanding to service the recovery.

This article presents a snapshot of the tourism industry through the pandemic, before focusing on the recovery over the past year. While international tourism is recovering only slowly, domestic tourism spending has rebounded strongly – to above pre-pandemic levels – as many Australians have chosen to take domestic rather than overseas holidays. The article draws on information from the Bank’s regional and industry liaison program to discuss the challenges the tourism industry has faced in meeting this sudden increase in demand, and the outlook for tourism activity over the next few years. Many tourism businesses have found it difficult to quickly scale up to meet demand, and these supply constraints have limited tourism activity and led to higher prices. Looking ahead, a continued recovery in tourism activity is expected as supply-side issues are gradually resolved and international tourism picks up further. However, there are a number of uncertainties around the timing and extent of this recovery.

International tourism

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a sharp drop in international tourism, as governments around the world implemented travel and border restrictions (Graph 1). In April 2020, international tourism arrivals declined globally by around 90 per cent and Australia’s international tourist arrivals effectively came to a standstill for several months.

The timing and extent of the recovery in international tourism has been uneven across the world, as national governments removed restrictions at a different pace. Globally, international tourism arrivals picked up to be around three-quarters of their pre-pandemic levels by September 2022. In Australia, international tourist arrivals rose slightly in mid-2021 under the temporary operation of the Australia–New Zealand travel bubble, and also in November 2021 as border restrictions eased in some parts of the country. However, it wasn’t until February 2022 – when Australia removed border restrictions for vaccinated persons – that arrivals began to substantially pick up. Since July 2022, people have been able to travel to and from Australia without being required to declare their vaccination status.

Short-term overseas arrivals to Australia (which include tourists but also those visiting for less than 12 months for business, education and employment purposes) picked up to be around half of pre-pandemic levels by September 2022 (Graph 2). However, short-term departures of Australian residents have picked up more quickly than short-term arrivals of overseas visitors, and so the net outflow of travellers has been larger than pre-pandemic levels in recent months.

Reasons for travel

The recovery in short-term travel to and from Australia has been particularly pronounced among those visiting friends and relatives (VFR) (Graph 3). VFR accounted for just over half of all international visitors’ spending over the year to June 2022, whereas it accounted for just under one-fifth in 2019 (Table 1). Short-term travel for business and education purposes has also picked up. However, the recovery in outbound business travel (including conventions and conferences) has outpaced inbound business travel, with relatively few major business events held in Australia in 2022. Short-term travel for employment reasons has almost fully recovered to its 2019 levels. By contrast, the number of visitors arriving in Australia for holidays has picked up only slightly, to be around one-third of its pre-pandemic level (holiday visitors accounted for only 10 per cent of international visitor spending over the year to June 2022, compared to nearly 40 per cent in 2019).

Working holiday makers and international students who are in Australia for more than a year are not included in the short-term arrivals data, but they make a significant contribution to tourism spending. According to Hall and Godfrey (2019), visitors who state the main purpose of their trip as education stay longer and spend more than leisure and business tourists. International students and individuals on working holiday visas have a high propensity to travel within Australia, and often their friends and relatives come to visit. The number of international students and working holiday visa holders in Australia has risen to be around two-thirds and one-half of their pre-pandemic levels in the September quarter of 2022, respectively.

The recovery in international visitors to Australia has been uneven across source countries, reflecting both travel restrictions and the quicker recovery in VFR relative to other types of travel (Graph 4). The recovery in the number of visitors from India, New Zealand and the United Kingdom has been faster than for other countries, possibly due to the close relationships residents from those countries have with Australian residents (in the 2021 Census, England and India were the top two countries of birth for Australian residents, other than Australia). While there has been a notable pick-up in people from India visiting friends and relatives, there has also been a pronounced recovery in the number of Indian students coming to Australia. By contrast, the number of Chinese visitors remains more than 90 per cent below pre-pandemic levels, due to ongoing travel restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19 in China. This is significant for the Australian tourism sector as, prior to the pandemic, Chinese visitors were the largest source of tourist spending and contributed around 20 per cent of total leisure travel exports in 2019 (or nearly 30 per cent if education-related travel is included).

Domestic tourism

Domestic tourism activity was severely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the introduction of strict restrictions on household mobility (‘lockdowns’) across the country in March 2020 (Graph 5). At the same time, a number of states and territories implemented interstate border restrictions and quarantine arrangements. As a result, domestic tourist visitor numbers declined sharply. By April 2020, domestic tourist numbers were less than 20 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

The first lockdown ended for most parts of the country by the end of May 2020, although some restrictions on household activity and state border closures remained in place for an extended period of time. Melbourne re-entered lockdown for much of the second half of 2020. By the end of that year, however, a number of states and territories had eased restrictions and reopened domestic borders, allowing domestic visitor numbers to recover to around 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels over the 2020/21  summer and the 2021 Easter holidays (Graph 6).

A third major disruption emerged in mid-2021, as a sharp rise in the number of Delta-variant cases led to the reintroduction of lockdowns in New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT. Around half of the Australian population were under significant restrictions for most of the September quarter of 2021 and domestic visitor numbers declined to around 40 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

Domestic tourism numbers rebounded again during the 2021/22  summer holidays as health restrictions eased once more, but not to the levels of the previous year; the Omicron outbreak in early 2022 tempered activity somewhat. As concerns about Omicron abated, domestic visitor numbers again recovered, and have been around 85 per cent of pre-pandemic levels since Easter 2022.

While domestic visitor numbers remain below pre-pandemic levels, total domestic tourism spending and the average spend per visitor have been above pre-pandemic levels since March 2022. Some liaison contacts report that domestic travellers are staying longer than they did before the pandemic and spending patterns have become more like those on overseas holidays, with domestic tourists spending more on tours and experiences to explore Australia. This higher spending also reflects an increase in domestic travel prices (see below).

The recovery in domestic tourism spending in 2022, to around or above pre-pandemic levels, is evident in all states and territories (Graph 7). Naturally, states that experienced longer and stricter COVID-19 restrictions had much more significant declines in tourism activity over 2020 and 2021. Western Australia experienced the least disruption to the tourism industry, partly due to having fewer restrictions on movement, but also because the closed state border meant that more Western Australians were holidaying in their own state. In recent months, the Northern Territory and Queensland have been the recipients of domestic tourism spending well above 2019 levels, perhaps because these travel destinations are regarded as closer substitutes for overseas holidays.

Travel to regional areas recovered more quickly and fully than travel to capital cities (Graph 8). Regional areas were less affected by lockdowns and liaison suggests that travellers preferred to avoid more densely populated areas. There was also a shift towards driving holidays, which has greatly benefited regions within two to three hours’ drive from capital cities.

Challenges in reopening the Australian tourism industry

While pandemic-related declines in domestic and international tourism weighed heavily on the Australian tourism industry, many businesses have proved resilient and have experienced a strong rebound in demand from domestic tourists in recent months. Nevertheless, many businesses have found it difficult to scale up to meet this demand, and supply constraints have acted to limit tourism activity and led to higher prices.

In 2022, the biggest constraint on the recovery in tourism activity has been difficulty finding sufficient labour to service tourism demand. The tourism industry lost a large number of experienced staff during the pandemic – and so when domestic tourism recovered, the sector had to rapidly hire workers in a tight labour market. Online advertisements for tourism jobs rose to record highs by mid-2022 (Graph 9). These jobs have been difficult to fill. Liaison contacts have suggested that many of the Australians who had worked in the tourism industry prior to the pandemic have since found jobs in other industries. Moreover, many tourism-related jobs had previously been filled by international students and, particularly in regional locations, working holiday makers – many of whom left Australia during the pandemic and have been slow to return. On top of the difficulties in attracting and retaining staff, illness-related absenteeism has been elevated more broadly through 2022.

Tourism businesses in many regional areas have had additional difficulties attracting staff, partly due to a shortage of housing. An increase in net migration to these areas has contributed to very low rental vacancy rates in many popular tourist areas. In response, some holiday accommodation providers have resorted to housing their own staff.

There have also been some changes in consumer behaviour resulting from the pandemic that have made it harder for tourism businesses to plan and have sufficient staff available to meet demand. Trends such as increased working from home and a reduction in business-related day trips have created a larger gap between peak and off-peak periods for many tourism businesses. There are also sharper peaks and troughs in demand because there are fewer international tourists, who often travel at different times to domestic travellers (e.g. filling accommodation mid-week and outside school holidays). Booking lead times substantially shortened during the pandemic, though there is some evidence that perhaps these are lengthening out again. Nevertheless, booking lead times have always been shorter for domestic travel than international travel, so the change in the composition of travellers has made it more difficult for tourism businesses to plan ahead.

While labour has been a constraint across most of the tourism industry, a lack of capital equipment has been an additional constraint for some businesses. Many tourism-related businesses sold off or retired vehicles, boats, aircraft and other equipment during the pandemic when they could not operate and were in need of cash (Grozinger and Parsons 2020). The sudden and stronger-than-anticipated recovery in domestic tourism in 2022, combined with supply chain issues delaying the manufacture and delivery of new equipment and vehicles, has meant that many businesses did not have the capital equipment they need to service the increase in demand.

These supply-side constraints (in both labour and capital) have limited the tourism industry’s ability to ramp up to meet demand. Liaison suggests many tourism operators are operating below their previous capacity – for example, many have had to limit their operating hours because of lack of staff, and some accommodation providers have not been able to offer all their rooms for booking as they do not have enough staff to service them. Labour shortages and supply chain delays have also weighed on aviation capacity and contributed to a decline in domestic airlines ‘on-time performance’ over 2022 (Graph 10).

Similar constraints are also weighing on the recovery in international tourism. Contacts suggest that the recovery has been held back by limited flight availability, the higher cost of travel insurance and, in many cases, the higher cost of flights. Liaison contacts have indicated that delays in visa issuance in 2022 have also been a barrier for those seeking to travel to Australia. Over the past few months, however, visa processing times have shortened somewhat, and visa processing for applicants located overseas – including applicants for visitor, student and temporary skilled visas – have been given higher priority to allow more people to travel to Australia (Department of Home Affairs 2022).

The supply-side constraints in the tourism industry, combined with a strong pick-up in domestic demand and the higher cost of inputs such as fuel, have led to a sharp increase in domestic travel prices (Graph 11). Liaison contacts suggest that consumers have been relatively accepting of price rises for services essential to travel, such as accommodation. However, smaller operators – particularly in highly discretionary services, such as tours – have had less scope to increase their prices, and their margins have been squeezed by the higher costs of inputs such as food, fuel, energy and insurance costs. Prices for overseas travel have also increased significantly in recent quarters, as demand for flights has outstripped capacity, alongside rising jet fuel costs and increases in prices for international tours (ABS 2022).

The outlook

Looking ahead, tourism activity is expected to continue to recover as supply-side issues are slowly resolved and international tourism picks up further. Most liaison contacts suggest a full recovery will not occur until at least mid-2023; many expect it to take a few more years. There are a number of factors that will affect the timing and extent of the ongoing recovery in tourism, including:

• The easing of supply-side constraints : It is unclear how long it may take for some of the supply-side constraints in the industry to ease, including whether planned changes in flight availability will be sufficient to meet changes in demand, and whether the sector will be able to fill more job vacancies over time and as migration returns.
• The return of international students and working holiday visas : Many people have recently had working holiday visas approved and are expected to arrive over the coming year. Liaison contacts also expect international student numbers to increase over the next few years. The return of working holiday and student visa holders will increase demand for tourism services, and will likely alleviate labour shortages as they take jobs in the sector.
• Australians’ preferences for domestic and international travel : Demand for Australia’s tourism services may decline if Australians’ preference for overseas rather than domestic holidays picks up before international inbound tourism demand increases further. It is possible that cost-of-living pressures, combined with the higher cost of international travel, could lead Australian households to continue to prefer domestic holidays for a time. Nevertheless, many households have significant savings and pent-up demand for international travel after planned trips have been deferred over the past few years.
• The global economic outlook : Global economic conditions and the exchange rate affect decisions about whether to travel the long distance to Australia (as they have in the past) (Dobson and Hooper 2015). Financial concerns and the rising cost of living could make expensive, long-haul travel less attractive.
• The timing and extent of recovery in Chinese tourism : As noted above, China accounted for a large share of tourism spending prior to the pandemic. The outlook for Chinese tourism (and international students from China) remains highly uncertain and will depend on a number of factors, including China’s policies to restrict the spread of COVID-19 , the outlook for the Chinese economy and the travel preferences of Chinese tourists more generally.

Restrictions to contain the spread of COVID-19 and precautionary behaviour significantly disrupted the movement of people both domestically and internationally throughout the pandemic. Since restrictions have eased, international travel has been slow to recover, but domestic tourism spending has rebounded to be above pre-pandemic levels and many tourism service providers are currently operating at capacity. Looking ahead, tourism activity is expected to continue to recover, as supply-side issues are slowly resolved and international tourism picks up further. Australia remains an attractive destination for both domestic and international tourists, and the resilience and flexibility demonstrated by Australian tourism businesses in recent years bode well for the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

The authors are from the Regional and Industry Analysis section of Economic Analysis Department. The authors are grateful for the assistance provided by others in the department, in particular Aaron Walker and James Holloway. [*]

ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2022), ‘Main Contributors to Change’, Consumer Price Index , June.

Department of Home Affairs (2022), ‘Visa processing times’, viewed 14 November 2022. Available at <https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-processing-times>.

Dobson C and Hooper K (2015), ‘ Insights from the Australian Tourism Industry ’, RBA Bulletin , March, pp 21–31.

Grozinger P and Parsons S (2020), ‘ The COVID-19 Outbreak and Australia’s Education and Tourism Exports ’, RBA Bulletin , December.

Hall R and Godfrey A (2019), ‘Edu-tourism and the Impact of International Students’, International Education Association of Australia, 3 May.

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Table of Contents

How many tourists visit Australia each year?

• 2019 still holds the record for the highest number of visitors, with over 9.5 million travelling to Australia during that period (year ending June 2019)
• Despite seeing steady growth, visitor numbers are still 42% lower than those during the all-time peak
• Data for the 2021 period has not been seasonally adjusted

Who visited Australia in 2023?

• The top five visitor markets in 2023 were New Zealand, the UK, the USA, India, and Singapore
• China, previously one of the top visitor markets for Australia, has seen a decline in visitors during the post-pandemic period with only 235,000 visits over the 12 months ending in June 2023

How much did international visitors spend in 2023?

• International visitors spent over $34 billion during trips to Australia in 2023 (year ending June 2023)
• Spending was up 391% when compared to the over $7 billion spent during 2022
• Spending is down 22.8% when compared with the over $44.6 billion spent during pre-pandemic 2019
• Complete data is not available for 2021 due to low reporting numbers

Who spent the most in Australia in 2023?

• Chinese were the top spenders at over $4.1 billion (year ending June 2023)
• The top five spenders were China, the USA, the UK, New Zealand, and India

How many tourists visited Australia in 2022?

• In March 2020, Australia closed its international borders to all non-residents
• From August 2020 – September 2021, visitors to Australia were at an all-time low, with only 155,579 international travellers visiting during that time
• Australia began to reopen its borders in November 2021, with a complete lifting of travel restrictions taking place in July 2022
• Numbers are still significantly low when compared with the pre-covid period. For the year ending September 2019, Australia received a total of over 8.6 million international visitors

Who visited Australia in 2022?

• The top five international markets for Australia in 2022 were: New Zealand, India, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and the USA
• China, previously one of the top sources of international visitors to Australia, fell out of the top five in 2022, with only just over 62 thousand making the trip
• While seeing a significant increase when compared with 2021, numbers are still much lower when compared with the pre-covid period

How much did international tourists spend in Australia in 2022?

• Visitors from China were the top spenders, spending over $1.5 billion during trips to Australia in 2022
• Spending was down 71% when compared with the over $45 billion spent during the pre covid period (year ending September 2019)

How many tourists visited Australia in 2019?

9.3 million tourists visited Australia between July 2018 and June 2019, the highest number ever recorded. 1

How many tourists visited Australia in 2021?

Complete data during the covid period is not available. For the most accurate available 12 month reporting period – over 60,200 people visited Australia between April 2020 and March 2021. Visitors were down 99.3% when compared to the over 8 million visitors of the previous year.

How much did visitors spend in Australia in 2021?

Visitors to Australia spent more than $794 million between April 2020 and March 2021. Spending was down 98.1% when compared to the over $41 billion spent during the previous year.

Visitors from the US spent the most, spending just over $115 million during visits to Australia in 2021.

Who visited Australia in 2021?

Complete data during the covid period is not available. For the most accurate available 12 month reporting period – April 2020 and March 2021 – the highest number of visitors came from New Zealand with over 13,000 making trips during this period.

The top 5 countries from which visitors came to Australia in this period were New Zealand, USA, UK, India and China.

How many people travelled in Australia in 2021?

In the first quarter of 2021 (January-March), Australians made over 24.6 million domestic overnight trips.

• Domestic travel was up 1.1% when compared with the over 24.3 million domestic overnight trips for the first quarter of 2020.

How much did Australians spend travelling in 2021?

• Spending was up 0.4% when compared with the $17.81 billion spent during the first quarter of 2020.

Australian Tourism Statistics 2020

How many tourists visited australia in 2020.

9.3 million tourists visited Australia in 2019 (year ending June 2019). In 2020  the number of international visitors to Australia dropped to 6.7 million due to COVID-19 travel restrictions (year ending June 2020). 1   A further decrease in annual tourism was seen in 2021 (complete data for 2021 is not available due to low reporting numbers).

• In 2020 the number of international visitors to Australia went down by 27% compared to the previous year. This marked a year-on-year decrease of over 2.6 million visits.
• 2019 holds the record for the highest number of travellers visiting Australia in any year up to date.
• The dramatic drop in annual visits in 2020 was caused primarily by the coronavirus pandemic and related travel restrictions introduced in March 2020.
• Australian international tourism spend amounted to $44.6 billion in 2019 and saw a decrease of 25.2% in 2020 to $33.3 billion, significantly impacting the Australian tourism industry.

Who visited Australia in 2020?

• The most visitors to Australia in 2019/2020 came from New Zealand, at just over 1 million.
• For the previous two years, China had been the main source of visitors to Australia.
• The travel ban placed on Chinese visitors in early 2020 as well as the following coronavirus restrictions resulted in a larger relative drop in Chinese visitors than New Zealand visitors in the 2019/2020 year.
• The top 5 markets in 2020 were New Zealand, China, the USA, the UK and Japan
• All five of the top markets saw a large decrease in visitors due to the coronavirus restrictions

Impact of the Coronavirus on International Tourism Expenditure

• Spending was down 25% when compared to the $44.6 billion of the previous year

January 2020 - Bushfire Impact

• In January 2020 approximately 739,600 international visitors travelled to Australia. 4
• International visitor numbers were down 5.1% when compared with the 779,500 of January 2019.
• The drop can be partly attributed to the Australia bushfires crisis of 2019/2020 , impacting  Australian tourism businesses and hospitality sector  even before the COVID-19 crisis .

February 2020 and the Impact of Coronavirus

• February saw a significant decrease in international tourism due to the effects of the coronavirus crisis.
• In February 2020 approximately 647,000 international visitors travelled to Australia.
• International visitors were down 18% when compared with the 796,100 visitors of February 2019.

March 2020 and the Impact of Travel Restrictions

International arrivals in March saw a dramatic decrease, significantly impacting Australia’s tourism industry:

• In March 2020 approximately 307,900 international visitors travelled to Australia which was a 59.9% drop when compared with the 768,200 visitors of March 2019.
• On March 20th, Australia restricted entry to only citizens, residents and their immediate family.
• On March 25th Australian citizens and residents were also banned from travelling overseas.

Impact of the Travel Ban on Chinese Tourists

• In February 2020 visitors arriving from China decreased by 83% compared to the previous year (19,500 arrivals in February 2020 vs 116,900 visitors in February 2019).
• The significant drop was the result of the coronavirus-related travel ban implemented by the Australian government on 1 February for non-citizens travelling from or through China.
• February in the past has historically been the peak period for Chinese visitors to Australia.

Read more: Chinese visitors to Australia statistics

Impact of coronavirus on international visitors to Australia in the second half of 2020

• During that same period the previous year (July – December, 2019) Australia received over 4.9 million international visitors
• For the second half of 2020, international visitors were down 99.3% when compared with 2019

How did the coronavirus affect domestic travel?

• For the same period the previous year (July – December 2019) Australians made over 57 million domestic trips.
• Domestic trips saw a decrease of 33.8% during this time period.
• Despite lower travel volumes during the first part of 2020, domestic trips began to see an increase during the final quarter of the year.

Australia Inbound Travel Statistics for 2019 – International & Domestic Tourism

Who visited australia in 2019.

• The highest number of visitors came from China, at over 1.4 million.

• Up until 2016, New Zealand was the top source of tourist arrivals for Australia, but that spot was then held by China for 2 years.

What were the most popular tourist destinations in Australia in 2019?

• The most popular destination for both international tourism and domestic visitors was Sydney, with over 16 million visitors. 2

How much did international tourists spend in Australia in 2019?

• International tourists spent a total of $44.6 billion in Australia between July 2018 and June 2019. 3
• Chinese were the top spenders at $11.9 billion, nearly triple the amount of the next-highest spenders (Americans at $4 billion).

• International visitors spent an average of $5,183 per trip, an average expenditure of $163 per night.
• Holidaymakers contributed the most overall with $16.9 billion spent.

Which Australian destinations had the highest visitor spend?

• Sydney had the highest visitor spend receiving a combined $19.5 billion from both international and domestic visitors between July 2018 and June 2019.
• Melbourne also ranked high at a combined $17.0 billion.

How long do international tourists spend in Australia?

• Tourists spent 273 million visitor nights in Australia between July 2018 and June 2019.
• The overall average length of stay was 32 nights.

Australia camping & campervan statistics

• The number of camping trips throughout Australia has grown by 27.5% over the 10-year period from 2008 to 2018. 5
• In 2018 over 6.9 million overnight camping trips were made in Australia.
• Camping trips – including caravan, campervan, commercial and non-commercial camping – made up 13.7% of visitor nights for domestic travellers in Australia in 2019 (year ending September)

Other Resources

• Australia campervan hire comparison

Australian Outbound Tourism Statistics for 2019

Where did australian tourists visit in 2019.

• Australian tourists and travellers made over 9.5 million overseas trips in the year ending in June 2019. 4
• The most popular destination was New Zealand, with over 1.2 million trips alone.
• Indonesia (Bali), the US (Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco) and the UK (London, Scotland), were also popular destinations.

Travel Statistics Resources

International tourism - visitor statistics.

• Visitors from China
• Visitors from Hong Kong
• Visitors from India
• Visitors from Japan
• Visitors from Malaysia
• Visitors from New Zealand
• Visitors from Singapore
• Visitors from South Korea
• Visitors from the UK
• Visitors from the USA

Statistics by Location

• Adelaide Statistics
• Brisbane Statistics
• Cairns Statistics
• Darwin Statistics
• Gold Coast Statistics
• Melbourne Statistics
• New South Wales Statistics
• Northern Territory Statistics
• Perth Statistics
• Queensland Statistics  (incl.  Great Barrier Reef )
• South Australia Statistics
• Sydney Statistics
• Tasmania Statistics
• Victoria Statistics  (incl. Great Ocean Road and Twelve Apostles )
• Western Australia Statistics

Global Statistics

• New Zealand Tourism Statistics
• ABS : Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia, June 2020  ↩
• TRA : International Visitor Survey, National Visitor Survey, 2020  ↩
• TRA : International Visitor Survey, Trends 2019, National Visitor Survey, Trends 2020  ↩
• ABS : Arrivals and departures: Visitor arrivals, short term trips (seasonally adjusted) March 2020 ↩
• TTF : Estimated impact of Coronavirus on the Australia visitor economy ↩
• TRA : International Visitor Survey, September 2022 ↩

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Domestic overnight visitors to Sydney, Australia 2022, by precinct

Distribution of domestic overnight visitors to sydney, australia in 2022, by precinct.

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• Premium Statistic Share of domestic travelers in the U.S. 2022-2023
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• Premium Statistic Most visited states in the U.S. 2022
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Trips & spending

• Premium Statistic Number of domestic leisure and business trips in the U.S. 2019-2026
• Premium Statistic Annual growth of domestic trips in the U.S. 2019-2026
• Premium Statistic Yearly growth of domestic leisure trips in the U.S. 2019-2026
• Premium Statistic Growth rate of domestic business trips in the U.S. 2017-2026
• Premium Statistic Domestic travel spending in the U.S. 2019-2022
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• Basic Statistic Thanksgiving holiday travelers in the U.S. 2013-2023, by transport method
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Outdoor recreation

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Creative Australia's report into the music festival sector shows how many of the country's big events are struggling

More than one-third of Australian music festivals are losing money as they face skyrocketing operational costs and dwindling younger audiences, according to a new report from Creative Australia.

Billed as the first widespread report of its kind, Soundcheck: Insights into Australia's music festival sector  delves into the cultural, social and economic impacts of Australian music festivals, and paints a clear picture of the landscape as it stood in the 2022-23 financial year.

Spanning the 535 music festivals held nationwide in that time — that's almost 1.5 festivals per day — the 116-page report reflects the scope, scale and diversity of the Australian music festival landscape.

Given the highly publicised recent struggles festivals have faced, it's timely research that looks to help Australian audiences and funding bodies understand the challenges these events face.

How much money do music festivals make?

Just 56 per cent of music festivals reported a profit in the 2022-23 financial year, with more than one third of festivals reporting a deficit and eight per cent breaking even.

The median average cost to stage a music festival is $3.3 million, and those events that do make a profit pull in a median average of $731,569 per event.

When looking at the mean average of the same data, though, that figure skyrockets to $2.6 million — confirming that some festivals are in a much better financial position and stand to gain far more than some of their contemporaries.

For instance, the highest profit for a festival surveyed for this data was $47.4 million, while the smallest profit was just $20,000.

What are the biggest challenges festivals face?

Rising operational costs had the most severe impact on almost half of festival organisers (47 per cent) — overheads like artist fees, production, suppliers, freight, transportation and insurance.

Other major barriers included a lack of funding and grants, as well as extreme weather events. Almost one third of festivals said skyrocketing insurance costs were a major challenge.

Australian live music venues' public liability insurance policies increased 10-fold in the past financial year, climbing from $20,000 per year to as much as $120,000.

One festival organiser noted that necessary event cancellation insurance costs had "pretty much doubled" since the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The excess used to be like a standard commercial policy, which is like $4,000 or $5,000. Our excess for this year is $250,000."

Another organiser said navigating insurance paperwork had become an "absolute minefield" after making the tough call to cancel their festival.

"We had to wait until the morning of the show to make the final determination to cancel, otherwise there's the possibility that the insurance company could have said we could have worked out other alternatives.

"You're left with this real balancing act of, do you let your patrons know … who may have been booking accommodation, may have been getting drivers, getting babysitters, outlaying some money to attend the festival?"

The rising costs of securing police and security was another sore point. More than a quarter of festivals noted the challenges of navigating police and security requirements, and the difficulties of dealing with different government and council regulations across different states and jurisdictions.

"There's not enough consistency," said one logistics/operations worker from New South Wales.

"Whether you do an event in the metro area, or you do an event in Newcastle, or you do an event down the South Coast, or whatever the case may be, all these authorities have different expectations in regards to what they want from security and from the event. That makes it hard because some of the implications are more costs for the event promoter."

By contrast, most festivals found health, medical and liquor licensing requirements were the least challenging regulatory challenge, with around seven per cent reporting these elements had an impact.

Ongoing festival cancellations have created a vicious cycle where the more events pull the plug or lose headliners last-minute, the more hesitation it creates in the wider market — from both the industry and from punters holding off on purchasing tickets.

Who's buying festival tickets?

While music festival revenue comes from various avenues — from corporate sponsorship to hospitality services to merchandise and more — it's ticket sales that determine the ultimate feasibility of a music festival.

There is some good news on that front, with average ticket sales in 2022-23 higher than pre-COVID levels.

The average festival sold 8,116 tickets in 2018-19, which ballooned to 9,506 for 2022-23, indicating that the industry is slowly recovering from the decimating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The research suggests that young people are no longer the main consumer of music festivals, nor are they attending as much as they have in the past.

The 18-24-year-old group is no longer the biggest ticket-buying demographic, with people in their mid-to-late twenties overtaking them. The younger crowd slumped from 41 per cent of all ticket buyers in 2018/19 to 27 per cent in 2022/23. 

Genre specific events faring better

The report arrives amid a feast or famine crisis for the Australian music festival scene.

There's been a growing list of festival cancellations, from major events like Splendour In The Grass , Groovin The Moo and Mona Foma , to newer players like This That, Summerground ,  Vintage Vibes , Tent Pole , Valleyways, Costal Jam and more.

Amid those reports, however, genre-focused events — such as Good Things, Knotfest, Listen Out, CMC Rocks — are still proving popular, and summer staples — like Laneway Festival, Beyond The Valley and Field Day — are adapting to current challenges with great success.

The vast majority of Australian festivals predominantly feature homegrown line-ups, with four out of five acts being Australian. The most popular genre offering was electronic music, accounting for almost a quarter of Australian festivals. Other popular genres included rock (21 per cent) country (19 per cent) and indie (17 per cent).

Georgie McClean of Creative Australia says she hopes this research will serve as both a tool for those in the industry, as well as a way to exhibit the contributions music festivals make to Australia's creative sector.

"We hope this report will help us to better understand the role and contribution of festivals within the broader creative industries as they face multiple challenges.

"To inform the future work of Music Australia, we will be undertaking further research into how Australians discover, engage with and consume music, in order to better understand the broader ecosystem that underpins live music including festivals."

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National Visitor Survey results

Annual and quarterly results and statistics on how Australian residents travel in Australia.

Main content

Year ending december 2023.

The National Visitor Survey (NVS) results provide statistics on how Australian residents travel within Australia. You can find national, state and territory results for the:

• number of trips taken
• nights spent on a trip
• amount spent on a trip.

You can also read about the factors influencing travel in Australia.

Unless we say otherwise, we compared the summary results for:

• the December quarter 2023 to the December quarter 2022
• the year ending December 2023 to the year ending December 2022.

Quarterly snapshot

December quarter 2023, attach_money overnight spend.

$28.1 billion | Up 2%

person Overnight trips

28.7 million | Up 4%

clear_night Nights on trip

97.5 million | On par

Annual snapshot

$109.3 billion | Up 8%

112.6 million | Up 4%

402.4 million | Up 1%

Domestic trips and spend key results

Domestic tourism growth continued to moderate in the December quarter 2023 following strong results in 2022. Compared to the December quarter 2022:

• spend was up 2% or $637 million to $28.1 billion
• domestic overnight trips were up 4% or 974,000
• nights away were on par.

Intrastate travel drove the results in the December quarter 2023, while interstate travel was softer. Business travel also continued to improve when compared to the December quarter 2022.

The year ending December 2023 saw similar results when compared to year ending December 2022. In the year ending December 2022:

• spend was up by 8% or $8.1 billion to $109.3 billion
• overnight trips were up 4% or 4.4 million to 112.6 million
• nights away were up 1% or 2.7 million to 402.4 million.

Download the report

National Visitor Survey results December 2023

Explore overnight trips data

Interact with our data for domestic overnight trips for year ending December 2023. You can view the data by:

• state or territory
• capital city or region
• interstate or intrastate trips
• accommodation type
• reason for travel.

Data tables

National Visitor Survey results data tables

More information

• National Visitor Survey methodology .
• Data tables and other publications .
• National Visitor Survey monthly snapshot .

Contact TRA

mail   tourism.research@tra.gov.au

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Tourism and transport

Overseas arrivals and departures, australia.

In January 2024:

• Short-term visitor arrivals: 603,770 – an annual increase of 191,360 trips
• Short-term resident returns: 1,392,890 – an annual increase of 294,990 trips
• Total arrivals: 2,122,070 – an annual increase of 514,060
• Total departures: 1,745,840 – an annual increase of 368,990

Transport: Census

• The average number of motor vehicles per household is 1.8.

673,969 households don’t have a motor vehicle, primarily amongst lone households.

91 per cent of households (91.3 per cent) reported having at least one vehicle and more than half (55.1 per cent) reported having two or more vehicles.

Cars continued to be the most popular mode of transport to get to work in every state and territory. 52.7 per cent (6,347,498 people) of the Australian workforce drove to work by car only, compared to 61.5 per cent (6,574,571 people) in 2016. 

Using trains as the sole mode of transport to get to work decreased from 488,012 in 2016 to 170,326 in 2021. 

2.5 per cent of people (306,045) walked to work. Northern Territory had the highest proportion of people who walked to work at 7.6 per cent (8,115 people).

Of the 12 million people employed on Census day, 2.5 million people (21.0 per cent) worked from home, compared to 500,000 (4.7 per cent) in 2016. 1.4 million people (11.8 per cent) didn’t go to work on Census day, compared to 1 million people (9.4 per cent) in 2016.

Overseas Travel Statistics, Provisional

Provisional estimates of overseas trips in June 2021 show:

• A total of 103,500 arrivals
• 40,500 Australian citizens arrivals (39%), 9,100 permanent visa holders (9%), 43,800 New Zealand citizens (42%) and 10,900 temporary visa holders (11%)
• A total of 99,500 departures

Motor Vehicle Census, Australia

• There were 20.1 million registered motor vehicles as at 31 January 2021.
• The national fleet increased by 1.7% from 2020 to 2021.
• Toyota topped the list of passenger vehicles for the 16th consecutive year with 3.0 million registrations.
• Diesel vehicles increased to 26.4% of the national fleet, up from 20.9% in 2016.

Survey of Motor Vehicle Use, Australia

• 19,768,518 estimated number of vehicles
• 238,499 million kilometres travelled, an average of 12.1 thousand kilometres per vehicle
• 33,019 megalitres of fuel consumed
• 223,949 million tonne-kilometres of freight moved

Sales of New Motor Vehicles

Contains monthly information on sales of new motor vehicles in each state/territory sourced from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries

Tourist Accommodation, Australia

This release contains information on the supply of, and demand for, tourist accommodation facilities

Tourist Accommodation, Small Area Data, Australia

Information on the supply and demand for tourist accommodation facilities including number of establishments and occupancy by type and star rating

Australia’s journey to work

Electric passenger vehicle use, experimental estimates, visitor arrivals - calendar year - 2020, microdata and tablebuilder, view available microdata and tablebuilder.

We can provide access to detailed, customisable data on selected topics.