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Overnight spend
$8.0 billion | Up 38% on May 2019
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Overnight trips
May 2023 | 8.6 million Down 8% on May 2019
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Nights spend on trip
May 2023 | 28.4 million Down 6% on May 2019
Key results
May 2023 saw mixed domestic tourism results when compared to the May 2019 pre-COVID period. Overnight spend was up. However, the number of trips and nights away were down.
The strong spend results in May 2023 were driven by increased spending across all major expenditure items. The largest increases were on:
- accommodation
- food and drinks
- shopping.
When compared to May 2022 spend was up 4%. However, trips and nights were down 6% and 8% respectively.
Breakdown of results
In May 2023:
- spend was $8.0 billion. This was up 38% on May 2019 and 4% on May 2022.
- visitors spent 28.4 million nights away. This was down 6% on May 2019 and 8% on May 2022.
- there were 8.6 million overnight trips, down 8% on May 2019 and 6% on May 2022.
Early data shows domestic overnight trip rates for June were slightly higher compared to June 2022 but were weaker than the same period in 2019. Data for the first 2 weeks of July showed weaker results when compared to July 2019 and 2022.
The July 2023 trip rate shows 28% of NVS respondents interviewed in weeks 1 and 2 took one or more overnight trips. This was for the preceding 28 days (the reference period). The return date will be in June for some of these trips.
The trip estimate of 8.6 million for May refers to overnight trips returned from in that month.
Spend by expenditure item
Spend across all main expenditure items were up on the pre-pandemic levels in May 2019. In May 2023, spend on:
- accommodation was $2.2 billion, up 50% or $0.8 billion
- food and drink was $2.1 billion, up 35% or $0.6 billion
- shopping was $0.6 billion, up 60% or $0.2 billion
- petrol was $0.8 billion, up 17% or $0.1 billion
- domestic airfares were $1.1 billion, up 9% or $0.1 billion.
When compared to May 2022, there were increases in spend on:
- domestic airfares, up 18% or $170 million
- accommodation, up 4% or $91 million.
These were slightly offset by decreases in spend on:
- food and drinks, down 5% or $109 million
- petrol, down 9% or $77 million
- shopping, down 4% or 22 million.
Interstate and intrastate travel
Interstate
Interstate travel spend remained strong in May 2023. However, the number of overnight trips was below the pre-pandemic month of May 2019.
In May 2023, Australians:
- took 2.8 million interstate trips
- spent $4.5 billion.
Compared to a pre-COVID May 2019, this was a:
- 2% decrease in overnight trips
- 38% increase in spend.
Intrastate
Intrastate travel spend was strong in May 2023. However, intrastate travel was softer for overnight trips.
In May 2023, Australians:
- took 5.8 million intrastate trips
- spent $3.6 billion.
Compared to a pre-COVID May 2019, this was a:
- 10% decrease in overnight trips
- 39% increase in spend.
Domestic day trips
In May 2023, Australians:
- took 17.6 million day trips
- spent $2.3 billion.
Compared to a pre-COVID May 2019 this was a:
- 12% decrease in day trips
- 8% increase in spend.
Compared to May 2022 this was a:
- 11% increase in day trips
- 10% increase in spend.