Tourism losses over $100b

AUSTRALIAN tourism losses have totalled more than $100 billion since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to 30 Jun, new figures from Tourism Research Australia (TRA) show.

The latest TRA report indicated that $38.3 billion had been lost through a decline in domestic overnight travel, while $12.1 billion was leaked through less domestic day trips and a whopping $51.3 billion was missed due to the hole left by international travellers.

Meanwhile the 12 months to 30 Jun saw 87.4 million total visits across the country, as well as around 333 million nights, and $61.3 billion spent on trips.

The average trip over the period included a $702 spend across four nights, with taking holidays leading the way as the reason for travel, accounting for close to 40,000 trips, followed by visiting family (29,100) and business trips (14,900).

For the latest Jun quarter, overnight trips were down 19% to 24.6 million on the same quarter before the pandemic in 2019, and while improvements were noted for interstate travel due to improved border restrictions between Mar and Jun when compared to the preceding months, there was still a slide on pre-COVID spend, down by 6% to $9.9 billion.

Regional areas also fared better than capital cities, with spend up 3% ($1.2b) for Australia’s country regions, while in contrast capital cities recorded large declines, with overnight trips falling by 41% to 27.8m and spend plummeting by 46% (-$17.3b) to $20.5b compared to the year to Jun 2019.