Tourist dollars flow to regions

VISITOR expenditure in Victoria has hit a record annual high of $35 billion, with all Victorian tourism regions hitting all-time highs.

The latest Tourism Research Australia data showed visitor expenditure in Victoria for the year ending March 2023 surpassed the 2019 pre-COVID peak of $32.5 billion.

In another big win, Victoria led the nation’s tourism recovery. The state attracted 22.1 per cent of Australia’s total visitor expenditure over the 12-month period and made the largest market share gains in the country with a 2.9 percentage point growth.

The research also revealed that Melbourne kept its crown as the number one interstate overnight leisure destination in Australia, with 3.6 million visitors staying 14.6 million nights and spending $5.1 billion.

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.

International markets continued to recover reaching $4.2 billion in visitor expenditure in Victoria in the year ending March 2023 – approximately 50 per cent of 2019 levels.

China has returned as the number one international market after only reopening in January and India continues to be a growing international market with visitor expenditure now 11 per cent higher than in 2019.

Tourism Minister Steve Dimopoulos said: “Tourism is critical to the state’s economy and we back the industry because it creates jobs and supports so many Victorian businesses.”

“These are outstanding results for the Victorian tourism industry which has shown incredible resilience and innovation in recent years.”

“There’s no question that Victoria is back and top of the list for travellers from across the globe.”