Overnight spend
$9.7 billion | Up 17% on August 2022
Overnight trips
9.0 million | Up 7% on August 2022
Nights spend on trips
33.7 million | Up 9% on August 2022
Key results
August 2023 saw stronger domestic tourism results when compared to August 2022. Overnight spend, trips and nights were all up.
Breakdown of results
In August 2023:
- spend was $9.7 billion. This was up 17% on August 2022.
- visitors spent 33.7 million nights away. This was up 9% on August 2022.
- there were 9.0 million overnight trips, up 7% on August 2022.
- Early data shows domestic overnight trip rates for September 2023 were similar to September 2022 but slightly lower than September 2019. Data for the first 3 weeks of October 2023 showed weaker results when compared to October 2019 and 2022.
The October 2023 trip rate shows 31% of NVS respondents interviewed in weeks 1, 2 and 3 took one or more overnight trips. The reference period for these interviews would be the preceding 28 days. The return date for some trips would be in September 2023.
The overnight trip estimate of 9.0 million for August 2023 refers to trips that ended in the same month.
Spend by expenditure item
Results for August 2023 show an increase in spend on most of the major tourism expenditure items.
In August 2023, Australians spent:
- $2.55 billion on accommodation
- $2.31 billion on food and drink
- $1.36 billion on domestic airfares
- $0.83 billion on petrol
- $0.62 billion on shopping
- $0.47 billion on organised tours and entertainment.
Compared to August 2022, this was a:
- 6% increase in spend on accommodation
- 4% increase in spend on food and drink
- 31% increase in domestic airfares
- 9% decrease in spend on petrol
- 20% increase in spend on shopping
- 8% increase in spend on organised tours and entertainment.
Travel to capital cities and regional areas
Capital cities
Overnight trips and spend in capital cities were stronger in August 2023 compared to August 2022. Results were particularly strong for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
In August 2023, Australians:
- took 3.8 million trips to capital cities
- spent $4.5 billion.
Compared to August 2022, this was a:
- 6% increase in overnight trips
- 31% increase in spend.
Regional Australia
Overnight trips and spend to regional Australia were up in August 2023 compared to August 2022.
In August 2023, Australians:
- took 5.6 million trips to regional Australia
- spent $5.2 billion.
Compared to August 2022, this was a:
- 7% increase in overnight trips
- 7% increase in spend.
Domestic day trips
In August 2023, Australians:
- took 16.6 million day trips
- spent $2.5 billion.
Compared to August 2022 this was a:
- 5% increase in day trips
- 6% increase in spend.
Data tables
Read more
- Explore data from our international and national visitor surveys using TRA Online. Find out more on our Services page.
- Read the National Visitor Survey methodology.
- Find previous reports on our Data and research page
- Learn about how we are using Domestic mobility data.