Tourism & Transport Forum Chief Executive Officer Margy Osmond said new figures released this week show that both visitors and locals continue to choose Australia as a holiday destination in record numbers.
“The Tourism Research Australia data just released tells us that domestic overnight tourism continues to perform strongly with spend increasing by 13% to reach $72.2billion in the year ending December 2018,” she said.
“Aussies are taking the time to explore their own backyard and travelling interstate, with holiday visits up 8% to 42.4 million and spending increasing by 9% to $35. 3 billion dollars.
“This is an outstanding result. It is wonderful to see that all states and territories have seen impressive growth across 2018 in domestic overnight tourism with Queensland and Tasmania leading the charge.
“However, NSW has once again come out on top as Australia’s number one tourism destination seeing the state’s highest number of domestic overnight visitors and expenditure on record.
“Australia’s strong domestic tourism results dove tail into continued growth in international visitor numbers and spending, particularly by Chinese visitors but also longstanding major inbound markets including the US , New Zealand and UK visitors.”
Recent data release by TTF and Nielsen showed that 78% of Australia’s believe that tourism contributed to a stronger economy and see the sector as the leader when it comes for future jobs rating at 31% ahead of the financial sector, agriculture and mining
“The results cement our industry’s as a driving force when it comes to a strong and healthy economy,” Ms Osmond added.
