The latest TRA Visitor Survey to the year ending September 2024 reveals international visitation and spend is on the rise, whilst domestic visitation is starting to stabilise following the rapid post-pandemic growth period.
Overall, ACT visitor expenditure for the year ending September 2024 was $3.7 billion, from 5.2M visitors, holding steady to the year ending September 2023. Underlying this result was international visitor spend reaching $625 million – the highest level since March 2019, and up 50% year on year.
Whilst international visitors account for 4% (just under 200,000) of all ACT visitors, analysis shows international visitors spend at 5x the rate of domestic overnight visitors – making up 17% of the total visitor spend in the ACT. China and the USA are the largest inbound markets for the ACT, with India, UK and NZ continuing to be key in-bound markets.
Whilst Domestic Visitors remain the largest segment on visitation and overall spend, presenting a “grow through volume” opportunity, the international segment represents a “grow through value” opportunity given their higher capacity and willingness to spend.
On a domestic level, the ACT attracted just over 3 million overnight visitors, representing a 3% decrease year on year. However, the ACT continues to have the highest growth in domestic overnight expenditure nationally, up 8% to $2.65 billion.
There’s been a slight shift in the profile of domestic overnight visitors to the ACT, with fewer from traditional markets of Sydney and Regional NSW and increases in visitors from Melbourne, Gold Coast and Rest of Australia. Specifically, among Domestic Visitors, the domestic holiday segment was up 16% to 894,000, with their expenditure up 38% to $809 million year on year.
However, domestic day trip visitors to the ACT declined 17% on the year ending September 2023, driven largely by fewer day trip visitors from Sydney.
At VisitCanberra, we are diving into the developing trends among ACT Visitors in light of the Tourism 2030 strategy to adapt our strategies and areas of focus to ensure the local industry can drive together towards the goal of a visitor economy worth $5B by 2030.
Get in touch with VisitCanberra with your questions about the latest ACT tourism trends or any specific information needs to help develop your visitor strategies and tactics.