Spend up despite falls

WHILE the number of domestic trips by Aussies have dropped away in the 12 months to Sep 2022, new figures from Tourism Research Australia has shown that travel spend continues to buck the trend.

The latest National Visitor Survey showed that travel spend increased by 11% to $87.5 billion for the 12-month period, with travellers forking out even more cash on average over the Sep quarter, which was up by $7 billion to $27.8 billion.

Fuelling the higher rates of spend have been increases across major travel categories such as accommodation, dining, and airfares, which were up 52%, 33% and 19%, respectively.

Increased spending on holidays also contributed to the quarter’s strong performance, with the segment increasing by 57% ($5.9 billion) when compared to the Sep quarter 2019.

Despite the strong spending figures, domestic travel numbers continue to track downwards for the year to Sep, with overnight trips decreasing by 12% on the previous period to 101.6 million, while the total number of nights spent on trips also declined by 8% to 376.9 million.

On a state and territory basis, the biggest falls in overnight trips was experienced by Victoria, which saw numbers plummet by 18%, followed by NSW (-16%), and South Australia (-15%).

On a positive note however, the dipping 12-month performance did begin to slow down in the final quarter of the year, with overnight trips only down by 2%, while the total number of nights was on parity with the previous corresponding quarter.

The best performing regions for the period were the Whitsundays (+43%), the Clare Valley (+26%), and NT’s Katherine (+25%).