Accessible tourism in Australia

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Size and value of accessible tourism in Australia

Number of trips (domestic trips and international visitors):

• 70.5 million trips were taken by travellers with accessible needs. 
• This equates to 22% of all trips in Australia in 2024

Total spend of travellers with accessible needs: 

• $29.2 billion (total trip spend of travellers with accessible needs in 2024)
• This equates to 17% total spend by all travellers in Australia in 2024

Base: Domestic & international travellers in Australia. Sources: Tourism Research Australia NVS & IVS data, 2024; ABS Overseas Arrivals and Departures, 2024.

Overview of accessible tourism

In this report the “travellers with accessible needs” group is inclusive of all respondents to Austrade’s National Visitor Survey or International Visitor Survey who identified as having a disability or long-term health condition or travelled with a person who did (see appendix 1 for more information).

Purpose of travel

• Holiday: the most common purpose for travel among travellers with accessible needs and other traveller types.
• Visiting friends and relatives: the next most popular purpose for all traveller types. A substantially larger proportion of travellers with accessible needs travelled for this purpose than among other travellers.
• Travel for business, employment or education: the proportion of people with accessible needs travelling for these purposes was smaller than among other travellers.

Base: International visitors. Source: Tourism Research Australia NVS data, 2024

Base: Domestic overnight trips. Source: Tourism Research Australia NVS data, 2024.

Base: Domestic day trips. Source: Tourism Research Australia NVS data, 2024.

Trip origins

Number of domestic trips by home state of traveller

The share by home state of travellers’ domestic trips by travellers with accessible needs reflects state populations. For example, NSW and Victoria are Australia’s 2 most populous states and were the 2 states with the largest share of trips by home state.

Victoria and Queensland represent a slightly higher proportion of trips by home state of travellers with accessible needs than their proportion of Australia’s population.

NSW represents a slightly smaller proportion of trips by home state of travellers with accessible needs than its proportion of Australia’s population.

Base: Domestic overnight and domestic day travellers with accessible needs. Source: Tourism Research Australia NVS data, 2024.

Trip destinations

Stopover nights by state and territory

New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria were the 3 most popular destination states in terms of total trip nights (both for travellers with accessible needs and other travellers).

Travellers with accessible needs spent 31% of their total nights in New South Wales, 24% in Queensland and 21% in Victoria.

While Victoria was the home state of 28% of travellers with accessible needs, its share of nights stayed was only 21%. By contrast, New South Wales and Queensland had a larger share of nights stayed than their share of trips by home state of traveller (31% vs 28% for New South Wales and 24% vs 23% for Queensland).

Base: Domestic overnight trips & international visitors. Source: Tourism Research Australia NVS and IVS data, 2024.

Capital cities vs regional Australia

Travellers with accessible needs were more likely to spend time in regional areas than other travellers.

58% of the nights/day trips of travellers with accessible needs were spent in regional areas compared with 44% of nights spent in regional areas for other travellers.

This may be partially explained by the fact that the proportion of international visitors with accessible needs visiting Australia for education or employment was smaller than that of other international visitors (this cohort had a lower propensity to stay in regional areas).

Base: All traveller types. Source: Tourism Research Australia NVS and IVS data, 2024.

Travellers with accessible needs: how they travel

This section contains information about people travelling for holiday, visiting friends and relatives and business only. This focus removes skews in the data caused by differences in the composition of the international visitor population between travellers with accessible needs and other travellers.

Average spend per trip

For all traveller types, travellers with accessible needs spent less per trip on average than other travellers. This may be partially due to the fact that domestic travellers with accessible needs are less likely to travel interstate while international travellers with accessible needs tend to take slightly shorter trips than other travellers.

• Avg trip spend of international travellers with accessible needs ($2,516) was 92% of that of other international travellers ($2,744).
• Avg trip spend of domestic overnight travellers with accessible needs ($917) was 93% of that of other travellers ($987).
• Avg trip spend of domestic day trip travellers with accessible needs ($139) was 92% of that of other travellers ($152).

Base: All traveller types with main purpose of trip business, holiday or visiting friends and relatives. Source: Tourism Research Australia NVS and IVS data, 2024.

Expenditure items

The proportions of trip spend by item were quite similar between travellers with accessible needs and other travellers. The most notable difference between the groups is that travellers with accessible needs spent a smaller proportion on airfares than do other travellers (9% vs 11%).

Food, drink and accommodation accounted for the majority of trip spend of travellers with accessible needs (with 53% of total spend). This was similar for other travellers.

International travellers spend a higher proportion of trip spend on tours, but a lower proportion on domestic airfares than domestic travellers.

Base: All traveller types with main purpose of trip business, holiday or visiting friends and relatives. Source: Tourism Research Australia NVS and IVS data, 2024.

Average length of trip (nights)

Domestic overnight trips were slightly longer for those with accessible needs (3.7 nights) than those without (3.4 nights).

By contrast, international visitors with accessible needs on average had slightly shorter trips (26.1 nights) than other international travellers (26.6 nights).

International travellers with accessible needs travelling for business had longer trips (17.4 nights) than other travellers (13.2 nights). They had shorter holiday trips than other travellers (21.6 nights vs 26.1 nights).

Base: International visitors with main purpose of trip business, holiday or visiting friends and relatives. Source: Tourism Research Australia IVS data, 2024.

Base: Domestic overnight travellers with main purpose of trip business, holiday or visiting friends and relatives. Source: Tourism Research Australia NVS data, 2024.

Accommodation

The most common accommodation type for travellers with accessible needs was staying at a friends or relatives’ property, accounting for 40% of all nights stayed.

The next most common accommodation type was hotel, motel or resorts (25% of nights) and third was caravan parks or camping (15% of nights). 

In comparison with other travellers, travellers with accessible needs were more likely to stay at a friends or relatives’ property (40% vs 38%) or caravan park or camping (15% vs 9%).

By contrast, they were less likely to stay at rented accommodation (9% vs 14%).

Base: Domestic overnight travellers and international visitors with main purpose of trip business, holiday or visiting friends and relatives. Source: Tourism Research Australia NVS and IVS data, 2024.

Travel parties

While over 1 in 4 travellers with accessible needs travel alone, they do so proportionately less than other travellers: 28% of travellers with accessible needs travel solo, compared to 36% for other travellers.

They also travel more frequently in parties of friends and/or relatives (25% to 18%) and in family groups of parents and children (16% to 14%).

At around 25%, the proportion of adult-couple travel parties is similar for both travellers with accessible needs and other travellers.

Base: Domestic overnight travellers and international visitors with main purpose of trip business, holiday or visiting friends and relatives. Source: Tourism Research Australia NVS and IVS data, 2024.

Travel activities

All traveller types were most likely to have eating out/ dining at a restaurant as their top activity, with going shopping for pleasure and going to the beach featuring in the top 5 activities for all.

For all travellers, visiting friends and family was the 2nd most common activity for holiday, VFR and business travel.

Taking in Australia’s beautiful natural landscape was also a key driver of activity with going to the beach, sightseeing, bushwalking and visiting national parks all being among the top 10 activities.

Base: All traveller types with main purpose of trip business, holiday or visiting friends and relatives. Source: Tourism Research Australia NVS and IVS data, 2024.

Transport to travel destination

The most common mode of transport for all traveller types was self-drive vehicle (i.e. a car or vehicle driven by the traveller or one of their party).

Travel by air was the second most common mode of transport for domestic overnight and international visitors. This was especially common for international visitors (as most would arrive at their first stopover by air transport from overseas).

Travellers with accessible needs used train or bus/coach to travel more frequently than other travellers.

International visitors tended to use more diverse forms of transport (such as taxi, ride-share, walking, etc.) than other traveller types.

Base: International visitors with main purpose of trip business, holiday or visiting friends and relatives. Source: Tourism Research Australia IVS data, 2024.

Base: Domestic overnight trips with main purpose of trip business, holiday or visiting friends and relatives. Source: Tourism Research Australia NVS data, 2024.

Base: Domestic day trips with main purpose of trip business, holiday or visiting friends and relatives. Source: Tourism Research Australia NVS data, 2024.

*Appendix 1: Disability section of NVS/IVS questionnaire

Which, if any, of the following health conditions do you or any other person who went with you on the trips within Australia we talked about today have?

• Vision impairment (not corrected by glasses or contact lenses)
• Hearing impairment
• Require wheelchair or scooter
• Require other mobility aids or have other mobility limitations
• Difficulty understanding or learning
• Mental health condition
• Chemical sensitivity or food allergies
• None of the above
• Refused
• Don’t know

Further resources for accessible tourism

• The WELCOME framework (Austrade)
• Accessible tourism in Australia (Austrade)
• Accessible Tourism (Tourism Australia)