Australia Tourism Statistics

Over 6.11 million visitors travelled to Australia in 2023 (year ending September 2023).

• 2019 still holds the record for the highest number of visitors, with over 8.66 million travelling to Australia during that period (year ending September 2019)
• Despite seeing steady growth, visitor numbers are still 14% lower than those during the all-time peak
• Data for the 2021 period has not been seasonally adjusted.

Who visited Australia in 2023?

The highest number of visitors in 2023 came from New Zealand at 978,000.

• 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.

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 tourists visited Australia in 2020?

Over 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).

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

International visitors spent a total of $33.3 billion during trips to Australia for the year ending June 2020.

• 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.
• 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

For the 2nd half of the year (July – December) Australia received a total of 32,740 international visitors.

• 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?

In the second half of 2020 (July to December) Australians made over 38 million domestic trips.

• 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.

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.

Australian camping & campervan statistics

• The number of camping trips throughout Australia has grown significantly in recent years. In 2024, 15.2 million camping trips where made in Australia, more than double the number of trips made in 2018 (6.9 million).
• Over $14 billion was spent during camping trips in Australia in 2024. Find out more about recent camping statistics in Australia as well as glamping trends.