The NSW Blues may have levelled the State of Origin 2024 Series in Melbourne overnight, but the state is the clear winner when it comes to Australia’s visitor economy recovery, attracting 3.7 million international travellers and the highest expenditure for the year ending March 2024.
The latest Tourism Research Australia (TRA) International Visitor Survey shows NSW was Australia’s top destination for international visitors, visitor nights and expenditure, leading the nation’s visitor economy recovery last year.
There were 3.7 million international visitors to NSW for the year ending March 2024, who stayed 95.2 million nights and spent $11.8 billion.
The largest percentage of NSW visitor arrivals came from the US, New Zealand and China.
Sydney is tops with international travellers
Sydney was the number-one capital city for visitors, visitor nights and expenditure with 3.4 million international visitors who stayed 79.9 million nights and spent an estimated $10.7 billion, while domestic visitors spent a record-breaking $15.7 billion.
Sydney’s fastest-growing international source markets were South Korea (up 19.4%), India (up 12.4%) and Indonesia (up 4.9%), bumping up the visitor economy recovery.
Regional NSW on the rise
There were also 694,400 international visitors to regional NSW, who stayed 15.3 million visitor nights and spent an estimated $1.1 billion to aid the state’s visitor economy recovery.
The state’s top three regions were the Hunter, which was also the top destination for domestic day trips, followed by South Coast and New England North West.
Of this, the UK was the largest international source of visitors to regional NSW at 18 per cent with the fastest-growing source markets hailing from India (up 15.8%), Netherlands (up 4.1%) and Indonesia (up 116%).
NSW also topped the country’s domestic visitation, visitor nights and expenditure with 100.3 million domestic visitors who stayed 117.8 million nights and spent $41 billion for the visitor economy recovery.
Destination NSW Acting CEO Ian Maltman said: “These results confirm the NSW visitor economy is celebrating a strong and fast recovery.”
NSW received 53 per cent more visitors, 56 per cent more visitor nights and 52 per cent more expenditure than Victoria; and 74 per cent more visitors, 85 per cent more visitor nights and 92 per cent more expenditure than Queensland.
Brisbane is booming
For Brisbane’s visitor economy recovery, TRA data for the same period showed overall visitor spending climbed to a record $10.6 billion, up 29.4 per cent from 2019, with domestic spend at $7.4 billion and international expenditure up 10.9 per cent from 2019 to $3.2 billion.
Brisbane welcomed more visitors from Canada, New Zealand, South Korea and the US than ever before in the year to March 2024.
Visitors from South Korea were up 35.6 per cent from 2019, supported by increased direct flights to Seoul launched in February, while visitors from Canada jumped by 23.9 per cent in this period.
The data showed international visitors were also staying longer in Brisbane, increasing their average length of stay to 21 nights, up by 2.6 nights.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said visitors from around Australia and the world are enjoying the best of Brisbane and boosting the visitor economy recovery.
“Be it for business or leisure, international and domestic travellers are extending their stays and enjoying our fantastic lifestyle for longer, benefitting our local businesses and strengthening our economy,” he said.
“We will continue to support new and expanding aviation routes, which have contributed to the resurgence of major international tourism markets.”
Read the full results at tra.gov.au
