Tourism Research Release, Austrade, 9 October 2109

Latest International Visitor Numbers Released – Year Ending June 2019

Australia continued to see record numbers of international visitors over the year to June 2019. There were 8.6 million visitor arrivals, 3% more than the previous year. This supported strong growth of 5% in total trip spend, which reached a record $44.6 billion.

Key findings

• Australia saw record numbers of international visitors aged 15 years and over for the year to June 2019 with 8.6 million arrivals – 3% more than the previous year. This supported strong growth of 5% in total trip spend, which reached a record $44.6 billion.
• Growth continues to be led by education and holiday travel. Education visitors were up 5% to 586,000, and spend a stronger 8% to a record $12.7 billion.  Holiday visitors were up 4% to almost 4 million, while spend grew 6% to a high of $16.9 billion.
• The average length of international trips has fallen six nights over the last six years to 32 nights but spend per night has increased 26% from $129 to $163.
• Growth was impressive for the Japanese market, with visitors up 9% to 445,000, and spend up 16%, reaching $2.0 billion. There was also a 9% increase in spending by US visitors to $4 billion.
• India has seen the strongest growth over the past three years with visitor numbers increasing 53% to 350,000, and spend 68% to $1.8 billion over this period. India is now ranked 7th for number of incoming international visitors compared with 15th back in June 2006.

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Latest National Visitor Survey results

Domestic overnight travel continued to perform well over the year ending June 2019, with spend reaching a record $77.5 billion. 

Key findings

• Domestic overnight travel continued to perform well over the year ending June 2019, with 113 million visitors spending a record $77.5 billion.
• Gen X and a good proportion of millennials were the biggest tourism spenders during the year June 2019. Australians aged 30–54 years spent $809 per person on average per trip compared with $666 for older and $471 for younger travellers.
• Young travellers saved on their travel expenses by staying with friends and relatives more often (49% compared with 36% for other travellers).
• With its proximity to Australia, almost half (48%) of all outbound trips during the year ending March 2019 were to Asia, up from 42% ten years earlier.
• Japan has been the fastest growing overseas destination with visitor numbers more than doubling to 416,000 over the past five years.

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Technology Disruptors in Tourism report

This report describes the impact of digital technologies, and the opportunities and challenges they present to the tourism industry.

Introduction

New technologies have the potential to enhance and challenge sectors of the tourism industry, changing the way operators target travellers, disrupting existing service offerings and forcing a re-imagining of the visitor experience and the end-to-end visitor journey.

The accommodation and aviation sectors have already experienced significant disruption from digital technology. The next wave of disruption is expected to impact the shopping,  tours and food and beverage sectors, through growth in  the sharing economy, emerging payments platforms, and augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

Download the full report below.