Australia’s latest Tourism Research data have revealed Victoria scoring a $35 billion visitor spending level, reaching the State’s 2024 target more than a year ahead of schedule.
The latest data show Victoria’s visitor expenditure for the year ending March 2023 passing the 2019 pre-COVID peak of $32.5 billion.
According to the Minister for Tourism, Steve Dimopoulos the extent of the tourism was important as it created jobs and led to supports for many Victorian businesses.
“These are outstanding results for the Victorian tourism industry which has shown incredible resilience and innovation in recent years,” Mr Dimopoulos said.
“There’s no question that Victoria is back and top of the list for travellers from across the globe,” he said.
In another big win, Victoria has been found to be leading Australia’s tourism recovery.
The data revealed the State attracted 22.1 per cent of Australia’s total visitor expenditure over the 12-month period as well as the biggest market sales in the country with a 2.9 percentage growth.
They found Regional Victoria continued to deliver outstanding results with all tourism regions hitting all-time highs with visitor spending in Phillip Island increasing by 75 per cent, High Country up by 73 per cent, and the Grampians rising by 66 per cent since 2019.
“Overall intrastate overnight visitation numbers to regional Victoria were up six per cent since 2019, with total nights increasing by eight per cent and expenditure up 58 per cent,” the Minister said in a statement.
“The record tourism figures have been supported by a blockbuster major and business events calendar and Visit Victoria’s campaigns Stay close, go further and Get Set – Melbourne,” he said.
“Both campaigns reached more than 15 million people combined in the year ending March 2023.”
