Australia's direct tourism gross domestic product (GDP) rose to around 75 billion Australian dollars in the year ended June 2024. This marked an increase from the previous year and the continuation of tourism GDP recovery, which was lower in recent years, largely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Australia's tourism gross domestic product (GDP) bounced back strong in 2023, recording an increase of 90.8 percent. In 2024, the country's tourism GDP increased by around 9.1 percent. After witnessing a significant decline in tourism GDP in 2020 and 2021, with tourism GDP taking a massive plunge of 36.2 percent in 2021 as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, the industry appears to be on the road to recovery. Economic contribution and employment trends Australia's tourism sector recovery is reflected in its substantial economic contribution in 2024. In the year ending June 2024, Australia's direct tourism GDP rose to approximately 75 billion Australian dollars. New South Wales continued to be a key player in the industry, with its tourism gross value added (GVA) reaching about 20 billion Australian dollars. The state also led in employment, with around 195,000 people directly employed in the tourism sector. These figures underscore the tourism industry's significance in driving economic growth and job creation across the country. International visitors fuel industry recovery The revival of Australia's tourism sector is closely tied to the return of international tourists. In 2024, the country welcomed over 7.3 million international visitor arrivals, a significant increase from the mere 140,000 visitors recorded during the height of pandemic restrictions in 2021. New Zealand residents led the way, with over 1.2 million visitors, followed by tourists from China numbering just below 750,000. This influx of international travelers contributed substantially to the Australian economy in 2024, with total trip expenditure reaching approximately 47.8 billion Australian dollars, surpassing pre-pandemic levels for the first time.

The Tourism industry in Australia is well-developed and a critical contributor to national employment and GDP. Industry revenue consists of international and domestic expenditure on an array of tourism-related products and services. The industry faced an extreme downturn in 2019-20 and 2020-21 due to the pandemic, severely impacting both international and domestic tourism. Government restrictions led to a drop in revenue and employment. However, government assistance, such as wage subsidies, mitigated some effects of this demand collapse, aiding in maintaining enterprise, establishment and employment figures. In 2022, the industry rebounded rapidly following the easing of restrictions. Both domestic and international travel surged, leading to double-digit growth rates in revenue and stronger pricing power for airlines and hospitality businesses. State governments helped revive the industry by extending stimulus packages, which resulted in the re-establishment of healthy industrywide profit margins in 2022-23. Between 2021-22 and 2023-24, relative growth in spending by business and government travellers outpaced the increase from domestic leisure travellers. Factors like high inflation, increased airfares and financial pressure on households slowed the growth of domestic leisure travel. However, less price-sensitive business and government travellers remained largely unaffected. International tourism has also significantly increased since 2021-22. However, growth has stalled since 2023-24, as international traveller inflows have approached pre-pandemic benchmarks. The demand for luxury tourism has surged, supporting industry profitability. However, increased competition and slowing revenue growth in 2024-25 have led to a slight contraction in profitability, a trend that will continue into the following years. Despite the turbulent period, the strong recovery in demand in recent years has contributed to an estimated annualised hike in revenue of 5.0% over the five years through 2024-25. With demand approaching pre-pandemic levels, growth has started to taper, with revenue edging up by an expected 0.8% in the current year, to reach $200.5 billion. The outlook for tourism is promising. International tourism is set to strengthen beyond pre-pandemic levels, while substantial investment in the growing luxury tourist economy will bring more wealthy tourists to Australian shores. Cost-of-living pressures that have affected local households will ease over the coming years. At the same time, the accessibility of price comparison tools from online booking services will promote lower prices for domestic consumers, bolstering domestic tourism numbers. Overall, industry revenue is forecast to expand at an annualised rate of 2.3% through 2029-30, to $224.9 billion.

Tourist Arrivals in Australia decreased to 696500 in September from 753320 in August of 2025. This dataset provides - Australia Tourist Arrivals - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

The gross value added (GVA) by the accommodation sector to tourism in Australia amounted to over 10.1 billion Australian dollars in the year ended June 2024. That year, the accommodation and food service sector, as well as the air, water, and other transport sector, drove most of the growth in tourism GVA.

Australia International Tourism: Number of Departures data was reported at 2,832,000.000 Person in 2020. This records a decrease from the previous number of 11,624,000.000 Person for 2019. Australia International Tourism: Number of Departures data is updated yearly, averaging 5,201,500.000 Person from Dec 1995 (Median) to 2020, with 26 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 11,624,000.000 Person in 2019 and a record low of 2,519,000.000 Person in 1995. Australia International Tourism: Number of Departures data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Australia – Table AU.World Bank.WDI: Tourism Statistics. International outbound tourists are the number of departures that people make from their country of usual residence to any other country for any purpose other than a remunerated activity in the country visited. The data on outbound tourists refer to the number of departures, not to the number of people traveling. Thus a person who makes several trips from a country during a given period is counted each time as a new departure.;World Tourism Organization, Yearbook of Tourism Statistics, Compendium of Tourism Statistics and data files.;Gap-filled total;

Australia International Tourism: Expenditures data was reported at 7.654 USD bn in 2020. This records a decrease from the previous number of 41.345 USD bn for 2019. Australia International Tourism: Expenditures data is updated yearly, averaging 19.672 USD bn from Dec 1995 (Median) to 2020, with 26 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 42.439 USD bn in 2018 and a record low of 7.605 USD bn in 1995. Australia International Tourism: Expenditures data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Australia – Table AU.World Bank.WDI: Tourism Statistics. International tourism expenditures are expenditures of international outbound visitors in other countries, including payments to foreign carriers for international transport. These expenditures may include those by residents traveling abroad as same-day visitors, except in cases where these are important enough to justify separate classification. For some countries they do not include expenditures for passenger transport items. Data are in current U.S. dollars.;World Tourism Organization, Yearbook of Tourism Statistics, Compendium of Tourism Statistics and data files.;Gap-filled total;

The tourism sector GDP share in Australia was forecast to increase between 2023 and 2028 by in total *** percentage points. This overall increase does not happen continuously, notably not in 2026 and 2027. The share is estimated to amount to ***** percent in 2028. While the share was forecast to increase significantly in the next years, the increase will slow down in the future.Depicted is the economic contribution of the tourism sector in relation to the gross domestic product of the country or region at hand. The forecast has been adjusted for the expected impact of COVID-19. The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macroeconomic, demographic and technological environment in more than *** countries and regions worldwide. All input data are sourced from international institutions, national statistical offices, and trade associations. All data has been are processed to generate comparable datasets (see supplementary notes under details for more information). Find more key insights for the tourism sector GDP share in countries like Fiji and New Zealand.

Australia Tourism Accommodation: By Class: Midscale & Economy Classes with 10 or More Rooms: Revenue per Available Room data was reported at 76.521 AUD in Jun 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 87.917 AUD for Mar 2017. Australia Tourism Accommodation: By Class: Midscale & Economy Classes with 10 or More Rooms: Revenue per Available Room data is updated quarterly, averaging 84.419 AUD from Sep 2016 (Median) to Jun 2017, with 4 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 88.202 AUD in Dec 2016 and a record low of 76.521 AUD in Jun 2017. Australia Tourism Accommodation: By Class: Midscale & Economy Classes with 10 or More Rooms: Revenue per Available Room data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Tourism Research Australia. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Australia – Table AU.Q017: Tourism Accommodation Statistics.

The tourism GVA in New South Wales, Australia amounted to approximately ** billion Australian dollars in the year ended June 2024. This marked an increase from the previous year. Total tourism GVA had increased by more than *** billion Australian dollars across the entire country compared to the 2023 financial year.

Market Size statistics on the Tourism industry in Australia

Over ******* people were employed in the tourism industry in Australia in financial year 2024. This number has been rising since 2021, when under ******* people were employed in the industry.

Australia International Tourism: Receipts data was reported at 26.234 USD bn in 2020. This records a decrease from the previous number of 47.953 USD bn for 2019. Australia International Tourism: Receipts data is updated yearly, averaging 25.629 USD bn from Dec 1995 (Median) to 2020, with 26 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 47.953 USD bn in 2019 and a record low of 10.169 USD bn in 1998. Australia International Tourism: Receipts data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Australia – Table AU.World Bank.WDI: Tourism Statistics. International tourism receipts are expenditures by international inbound visitors, including payments to national carriers for international transport. These receipts include any other prepayment made for goods or services received in the destination country. They also may include receipts from same-day visitors, except when these are important enough to justify separate classification. For some countries they do not include receipts for passenger transport items. Data are in current U.S. dollars.;World Tourism Organization, Yearbook of Tourism Statistics, Compendium of Tourism Statistics and data files.;Gap-filled total;

Employment statistics on the Tourism industry in Australia

The Australia Surfing Tourism Industry is poised for steady growth, expected to rise from an estimated USD 3.4 billion in 2025 to USD 7.5 billion by 2035, with a CAGR of 8.2% during the forecast period.

Tourism is a major export earner for Australia, a source of employment for hundreds of thousands of workers and a key driver of growth in the economy. Unlike many other industries which are concentrated in geographic pockets, the benefits of tourism are widespread, with almost half of all expenditure going into regional Australia.

Tourism is also an industry that cuts across many sectors of the Australian economy — retail trade, accommodation, transport and food services being the most obvious examples. As a result, tourism does not fit within conventional frameworks used to measure economic activity. For this reason, tourism satellite accounts have been created to quantify the differing contributions from other industries, and to estimate the value of the visitor economy.

This dataset presents statistics about the businesses which are involved with tourism in specific Local Government Areas (LGA) around Australia. The LGAs covered in the data are a subset of the LGA boundaries classified in the 2018 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS).

The data represents information about the number of businesses involved in tourism by the number of employees they have employed. The data was sourced for the year 2018.

Tourism Research Australia (TRA) first developed Local Government Area tourism profiles in 2007 to assist industry and Government decision making and to identify and support investment opportunities, particularly in regional Australia. The latest profiles provide an update for over 200 Local Government Areas. Data are drawn from TRA's International Visitor Survey (IVS) and National Visitor Survey (NVS), along with demographic and business data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Profiles were only prepared for Local Government Areas with adequate IVS and NVS sample to present robust results.

For more information please visit TRA.

Please note:

• AURIN has spatially enabled the original data.

• Where data values were, "np", not published or "-", not available, in the original data, they have been set to null.

Australia Tourism Accommodation: By Class: Midscale & Economy Classes with 10 or More Rooms: Total Revenue data was reported at 3,042.368 AUD mn in 2017. Australia Tourism Accommodation: By Class: Midscale & Economy Classes with 10 or More Rooms: Total Revenue data is updated yearly, averaging 3,042.368 AUD mn from Jun 2017 (Median) to 2017, with 1 observations. Australia Tourism Accommodation: By Class: Midscale & Economy Classes with 10 or More Rooms: Total Revenue data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Tourism Research Australia. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Australia – Table AU.Q018: Tourism Accommodation Statistics: Annual.

The state of New South Wales, Australia, had the highest number of people employed directly by the tourism sector in financial year 2024, at around ******* people. New South Wales also accounted for the largest group of people employed indirectly in the tourism sector that year.

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