From the January 2024 reference month, TRA will return to publishing National Visitor Survey data on a quarterly basis only, with the data for December 2023 being the final monthly release.
Increased appreciation of the value of tourism data is generating significant addition demands for TRA services. At the same time, there are ongoing challenges with maintaining high-quality high-frequency data based primarily on survey collections. Ensuring statistical reporting remains robust and fit for purpose into the future is a priority and requires investment in the assessment and development of potential new data sources for use in tourism statistics. Statistical outputs are therefore being reprioritised to balance the timeliness of publications and the quality of releases.
Additionally, the monthly domestic mobility data indicator will continue to be available, providing users a high quality and timely tourism movement measure less than 2 weeks after the reference period.
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Overnight spend
$9.6 billion | Up 21% on December 2022
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Overnight trips
9.5 million | Up 5% on December 2022
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Nights spend on trips
34.4 million | Up 7% on December 2022
Key results
December 2023 saw stronger domestic tourism results when compared to December 2022. Overnight spend, trips and nights away were up.
Breakdown of results
In December 2023:
- spend was $9.6 billion. This was up 21% on December 2022.
- there were 9.5 million overnight trips. This was up 5% on December 2022.
- visitors spent 34.4 million nights away. This was up 7% on December 2022.
Early data shows domestic overnight trip rates for January 2024 were on par with trip rates for January 2023. Data for the first 3 weeks of February 2024 show stronger results when compared to February 2023.
The February 2024 trip rate shows 31.6% of NVS respondents interviewed in weeks 1, 2 and 3 took one or more overnight trips. The reference period for these interviews would be the preceding 28 days. The return date for some trips would be in January 2024.
The overnight trip estimate of 9.5 million for December 2023 refers to overnight trips returned from in that month.
Spend by expenditure item
Results for December 2023 show an increase in spend on all major tourism expenditure items.
In December 2023, Australians spent:
- $2.73 billion on accommodation
- $2.48 billion on food and drink
- $1.43 billion on domestic airfares
- $0.93 billion on petrol
- $0.80 billion on shopping
- $0.39 billion on organised tours and entertainment.
Compared to December 2022, this was an increase in spend of:
- 28% on accommodation
- 17% on food and drink
- 21% on domestic airfares
- 7% on petrol
- 8% on shopping
- 22% on organised tours and entertainment.
Interstate and intrastate travel
Interstate
Interstate overnight trips, nights away and spend were stronger in December 2023 compared to December 2022.
In December 2023, Australians:
- took 3.0 million interstate trips
- spent $5.1 billion.
Compared to December 2022, this was a:
- 14% increase in overnight trips
- 25% increase in spend.
Intrastate
Intrastate trips were stronger than December 2022.
In December 2023, Australians:
- took 6.5 million intrastate trips
- spent $4.5 billion.
Compared to December 2022, this was a:
- 2% increase in overnight trips
- 16% increase in spend.
Domestic day trips
In December 2023, Australians:
- took 17.3 million day trips
- spent $3.0 billion.
Compared to December 2022 this was a:
- 17% decrease in day trips
- 13% decrease in spend.
National Visitor Survey results monthly data tables
Read more
- Explore data from our international and national visitor surveys using TRA Online. Find out more on our Services page.
- Read the National Visitor Survey methodology.
- Find previous reports on our Data and research page.
- Learn about how we are using Domestic mobility data.