Outbound tourist trip expenditure Australia FY 2023, by destination

Outbound tourists from Australia spent just over 7.2 billion Australian dollars on trips to the United States in financial year 2023. Australian visitor trip expenditure in the United Kingdom followed closely, bringing in around one billion Australian dollars less than the United States. Despite being the leading tourist destination for Australians in terms of tourist numbers, the expenditure of Australians in New Zealand ranked in third place at around 5.1 billion Australian dollars.

Australians’ wanderlust has been reignited

Throughout the pandemic, overseas travel was ruled out for the majority of Australians, with several opting to explore the diverse landscapes closer to home. Nonetheless, since the borders reopened in 2022, the Australian population’s ability and desire to travel abroad has soared. The number of overseas departures of Australian residents leapt from around 1.4 million in 2022 to over 7.2 million in 2023, with the highest number of outbound residents traveling from New South Wales. New Zealand, Indonesia, and the United States attracted the highest numbers of Australia’s outbound tourists, with over one million Australian residents traveling to New Zealand in 2023.

Australians traveling closer to home

Traveling domestically is also a popular choice among Australians, with Sydney topping the ranking as the leading destination visited by domestic overnight visitors in Australia in 2023. While Sydney was the overall top destination for domestic overnight visitors, Melbourne snatched Sydney’s crown as the most popular holiday or leisure destination in Australia that year. The most prevalent reason for traveling domestically in Australia was for holiday purposes, with over 47 million domestic overnight trips taken for a holiday in 2023, followed by around 37 million trips to visit friends and relatives.