Tourism consumption
As a result of declining demand, tourism consumption in 2020-21:
- fell by 33% or $41.3 billion on 2019-20
- was 45% lower than pre-pandemic consumption in 2018-19.
This was in contrast to average annual growth of 5.7% per year in the 10 years prior to 2019-20.
Table 1 shows falls in consumption across Australia varied:
- The most severe falls since 2018-19 were for Victoria (Vic) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). They were, down 62% and 50% on 2018-19 respectively.
- South Australia (SA) and Tasmania (Tas) were the least impacted states. However, they were still down 29% and 36% respectively.
Table 1: Tourism consumption by state and territory, 2020-21
|
|
2020-21 Consumption ($B)
|
Change from 2019-20 ($B)
|
Change from 2019-20
|
Change from 2018-19 ($B)
|
Change from 2018-19
|
|
New South Wales
|
26.4 |
-11.3 |
-30% |
-20.3 |
-43% |
|
Victoria
|
13.8 |
-15.9 |
-54% |
-22.5 |
-62% |
|
Queensland
|
21.4 |
-7.0 |
-25% |
-13.3 |
-38% |
|
South Australia
|
6.4 |
-1.3 |
-17% |
-2.6 |
-29% |
|
Western Australia
|
9.4 |
-3.7 |
-28% |
-5.7 |
-38% |
|
Tasmania
|
2.9 |
-0.8 |
-22% |
-1.6 |
-36% |
|
Northern Territory
|
1.7 |
-0.6 |
-26% |
-1.5 |
-46% |
|
Australian Capital Territory
|
1.6 |
-0.7 |
-31% |
-1.5 |
-50% |
|
Total
|
83.4 |
-41.3 |
-33% |
-69.1 |
-45% |
Figure 2 compares 2020-21 consumption with 2018-19. It shows:
- Lack of international travel was the main cause of consumption decline for most states and territories.
- Domestic overnight interstate travel had a larger impact on falling consumption than domestic overnight intrastate travel. This was due to severe interstate border restrictions and consumers taking intrastate trips instead.
- Interstate border closures and travel substitution contributed to modest increases in:
- day trip consumption for NT
- domestic overnight intrastate consumption for SA.