Wednesday, 20 September 2017
NSW has achieved its highest annual growth in the last five years for domestic visitors, nights and expenditure, according to new figures released today by Tourism Research Australia.
The State remains the number one destination for domestic tourists in the country.
In the 12 months to June 2017, NSW welcomed 30.1 million domestic visitors who stayed 97 million nights and spent $17.2 billion in the State’s visitor economy.
Minister for Tourism and Major Events Adam Marshall said the latest numbers from the National Visitor Survey revealed a continuation of NSW’s strong tourism growth.
“For the first time we’ve broken through the 30 million domestic overnight visitor mark and the $17 billion milestone for spend,” Mr Marshall said.
“Rural and regional NSW continues to be the most visited regional area in Australia – attracting the highest number of domestic visitors who stayed the most nights in any regional area for the year.”
Mr Marshall said the results reflected the NSW Government’s successful strategies to drive overnight visitation.
“These fantastic figures follow NSW’s historic record in the latest International Visitor Survey and are testament to NSW Government’s world-class events calendar and strategic marketing and partnership initiatives, which drive visitors from across Australia and the globe and enable us to break new ground each year,” Mr Marshall said.
“NSW is unquestionably number one thanks to the hard work of the NSW Government over the past six years and we will continue to turbocharge local economies, generate jobs and drive investment in local communities through this booming industry.”
In Sydney, domestic visitors and nights grew by 7 per cent and 14 per cent respectively, with 9.5 million domestic visitors who stayed 26.2 million nights.
Regional areas across our State welcomed a record 21.3 million visitors who stayed 70.7 million nights and spent $10.5 billion in the last year.