Monthly results of the National Visitor Survey (NVS)

There were losses of $24.7 billion (47%) to domestic overnight tourism since the start of 2020 to the end of August. This was due to the impacts of bushfires and COVID-19.
A further $6.5 billion was lost through domestic daytrips since the start of 2020. This brought total domestic losses to $31.2 billion compared to the same period in 2019.
Domestic overnight travel continued to be severely affected by COVID-19 in August 2020. However, results in some states (Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Northern Territory) improved. This was due to stronger intrastate travel.
Continued closure of interstate borders and Victoria’s second wave of COVID-19 stifled further improvement at the national level. Results remained similar to July.

There was a softening in the number of visitors and spend in New South Wales in August 2020 (down 38% and 51% respectively). This was due to a deterioration in interstate travel from Victoria and Queensland that, unlike some other states, was not offset by an increase in intrastate travel.
Overall, overnight trips fell 40% to 5.2 million. Spend fell further, down 53% to $3.0 billion (a loss of $3.3 billion on August 2019).
The larger decline in spend can be attributed to large losses in higher value interstate travel. This was due to:
- border closures
- limited capacity to participate in various activities due to social distancing rules

August results show that regional areas fared better than capital cities. For example, domestic overnight trip spend in Sydney dropped 85%, compared with 28% in regional New South Wales. Spend in Brisbane and the Gold Coast also fell 49% compared with 6% for regional Queensland.
Some regional areas recorded increased numbers of domestic overnight visitors during August. This includes:

Data tables

See the monthly data for overnight and day travel by state and territory

https://www.tra.gov.au/ArticleDocuments/185/NationalVisitorSurvey(NVS)MonthlyDomesticOvernightVisitationAugust2020.xlsx.aspx