The hard-hit Australian tourism industry is forecast to rebound over the next few years, to attract an estimated US17 million spend by international visitors by 2025.

That’s according to Statista, which has blended data from a variety of sources to predict an expenditure increase of 59.5 per cent between 2024 and 2028.

It’s the domestic market that is robust, suggests Choice Hotels Asia-Pacific CEO Trent Fraser. The business has just reported March 2023 as a record month in bookings, backing up a strong first quarter.

“The domestic market is hot right now, with consumers continuing to splash out on travel, despite the cost-of-living challenges,” he said.

Currently the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals international visitor numbers have not yet recovered from the pandemic. It shows visits from overseas were down 22.2 per cent from the pre-Covid level in April 2019.

The drop in the number of visitors from China over the last few years is the most stark; visitor numbers are just six per cent of 2019 figures.

In April 2023 a total of 544,920 short-term trips were recorded in Australia. That’s a rise of 309,450 compared with the corresponding month of the previous year.

Where did visitors go?

The three big drawcard states were on the eastern seaboard. Queensland had 105,730 visitors in April; Victoria received 144,420 visitors. New South Wales attracted more than a third of all short-term visitors (200,230).

South Australia attracted 18,180 visitors; Western Australian had 5,970 and Tasmania 5,150 short-term visitors; while 3,930 visitors arrived or stayed in Northern Territory.

New Zealand accounted for 21 per cent of all visitor arrivals, significantly higher than the US and UK.

• New Zealand (112,140 trips)
• US (46,260)
• UK (42,920)

India and Singapore joined these three nations in the top five country sources for visitors in 2022.

Almost half of our visitors were travelling to spend time with friends or family (47.8 per cent). Visitors on holiday accounted for 28.6 per cent while business travellers were only 7.2 per cent of the visitor numbers.

How long do visitors stay?

The ABS reported the median length of stay in Australia was 18 days in 2022 compared to 2021’s 30 days.

In December 2022, Hobart hotels scored the highest occupancy rate at 77 per cent. Melbourne’s 60 per cent occupancy was the country’s lowest.

Sydney experienced the largest hotel occupancy growth with a year-on-year rise of 69 per cent.

More than 8,450 hotel rooms are due to open in 2023 and 2024 across Australia in preparation for the predicted boost to international visitor numbers. Melbourne has the largest share of new builds – with more 3,300 rooms under construction.