Number of domestic overnight visitors Australia 2023, by state visited

Over 36 million domestic tourists stayed overnight in New South Wales, Australia, in the year ended December 2023. Comparatively, the state of Victoria saw just shy of 28.5 million domestic tourists, whereas Tasmania saw around three million. 

Backpackers, coronavirus, and consumer travel intention

Australia remains a popular destination for backpackers, with Sydney receiving around 370 thousand in 2020. Brisbane and Melbourne were also popular, as well as north Northern New South Wales, the Gold Coast, and north Northern Queensland. The coronavirus pandemic impacted the travel sector in Australia similarly to the rest of the globe, and with international borders being closed, this had a knock-on effect on consumer travel intention. The overall travel intent dropped for Aussies by around 30 percent. However, domestic travel intent actually increased during the pandemic, with more saying they wanted to travel within their state or territory or across the rest of the country.

Consumer spending of international travelers

Australian borders were open for at least a portion of 2020, and those who did visit the country spent slightly more than in the previous year on average. This indicates that the industry remains strong, and a solid recovery post post-pandemic is possible. Moreover, despite the border closures and pandemic, international visitor arrivals to Australia remained at a good level; there were over six million international arrivals in 2020; this further suggests that industry recovery will occur in a relatively short space of time.