Domestic and regional research

National Visitor Survey results, year ending December 2017

Table 1: Key domestic visitation results for Victoria - year ending December 2017

Key domestic visitation results for Victoria year ending December 2017

For the year ending December 2017 (released 28 March 2018), key points include:

Strong growth recorded for Victoria in spend, visitors and nights, ahead of the national average and key competitor states.
Victoria recorded double-digit growth of 11.7% in domestic overnight expenditure to reach $13.6 billion in the year ending December 2017. Growth in spend was well ahead of the national average growth rate (+5.8%) and Queensland (+4.7%), while marginally above key competitor New South Wales (+11.6%). Overall expenditure growth for Victoria was driven by double-digit growth in both intrastate (+11.9%) and interstate (+10.4%) overnight visitors’ spend.
Total domestic overnight visitors to and within Victoria also performed strongly with a double-digit increase of 11.5% to 24.5 million. The year-on-year growth in visitors was ahead of the national average (+7.1%) and key competitors New South Wales (+8.2%) and Queensland (+4.9%).
In the year ending December 2017, domestic overnight expenditure in Melbourne was $7.7 billion, ahead of key markets including Sydney ($7.3 billion) and Brisbane ($4.1 billion). Solid growth was recorded for Melbourne (+9.3%), ahead of the capital cities average (+7.9%).
Domestic overnight visitors to Melbourne reached 9.3 million, representing growth of 7.2% year-on-year, in line with the capital cities average growth rate (+7.2%). Cities include: Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, Canberra and Darwin.
Interstate overnight visitors to Melbourne accounted for $4.4 billion in expenditure, 5.8 million visitors and 18.6 million nights, with double-digit growth recorded for spend (+10.4%) and visitors (+10.0%). The year-on-year increase in interstate spend in Melbourne was ahead of the national cities average (+7.4%).
Interstate overnight visitors to Melbourne grew strongly year-on-year from the Visiting Friends and Relatives (+13.4% to 1.6 million) and Business (+12.7% to 2.1 million) purpose segments. Interstate visitors from the Holiday segment also increased (+4.0% to 1.8 million).
Regional Victoria recorded an increase in spend (+15.0% to $5.9 billion), visitors (+14.4% to 16.0 million) and nights (+12.7% to 45.0 million), with all measures well ahead of the national regional average growth rates.
Daytrip expenditure in Victoria grew by 9.8% year-on-year to reach $5.1 billion, ahead of the national average growth rate (+3.4%). The increase in daytrip expenditure was a result of strong double-digit increases in daytrip spend in regional Victoria (+11.3%) and Melbourne (+7.6%).

How many Australians visit Victoria, where are they from and how much do they spend?