Victoria’s visitor economy has gone from strength to strength with the latest data showing increases in visitation, visitor nights and expenditure well above the national average. Today’s release of the International Visitor Survey for the year ending March 2019 showed Victoria welcomed 3.1 million international visitors, up five per cent on the previous year. This growth is far ahead of Queensland who experienced a decline of 0.7 per cent and New South Wales with just 0.3 per cent growth, and nearly double the national average growth rate of 2.7 per cent.
Growth in visitation was matched by an increase in international visitor expenditure of 7.6 per cent to reach $8.5 billion.
Regional Victoria experienced growth in visitation more than triple the national regional average – up by 12 per cent compared with 3.3 per cent. International visitor expenditure in regional Victoria was also strong, up 3.5 per cent to $582 million.
Phillip Island had a boom 12-month period with international overnight visitors up 39.1 per cent on the previous year, and other regional hotspots recording double-digit increases, including Gippsland (up 17.1 per cent), Goldfields (up 16.8 per cent), the Murray (up 16.2 per cent) and the Mornington Peninsula (up 13.6 per cent).
With international visitor expenditure up by 7.6 per cent, Victoria’s results are well in front of the national average increase of 5.8 per cent and ahead of New South Wales, which achieved a 7.1 per cent increase.
Double-digit increases in visitor expenditure were recorded from Asian markets such as Taiwan (up 36.4 per cent) and India (up 19 per cent), as well as strong growth from the United States (up 14.3 per cent) supported by the launch of direct flights between Melbourne and San Francisco.
China continues to be a critical market with almost 680,000 visitors in the past year (up 9.6 per cent), who injected $3.2 billion into Victoria’s visitor economy.
Visitor expenditure in Melbourne increased by 7.9 per cent on the previous year to reach $8 billion, while overnight visitors increased by 4.7 per cent to 2.9 million, outperforming Sydney and the Gold Coast.
International visitor expenditure grew across all key visitor segments, including holiday (up 8.9 per cent), education (up 8.6 per cent) visiting friends and relatives (up 8.6 per cent) and business travel (up 7.9 per cent).
Visit Victoria CEO Peter Bingeman welcomed the results. “Once again, I am thrilled with Victoria’s performance in the International Visitor Survey, which shows we are outpacing the national averages for visitation, visitor nights and expenditure,” he said.
“Victoria has something for everyone, from our world class food and wine, stunning natural scenery and show-stopping major events calendar – there is plenty to attract international visitors to Melbourne and even more people are discovering regional Victoria.”
“Today’s results are another indicator we are well on-track to reach our goal of growing the state’s visitor economy to $36.5 billion by 2025.”
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