Improving data and insights is a priority of Australia’s long-term strategy for the visitor economy, THRIVE 2030. Our Tourism Research Australia (TRA) team leads this work. We are Australia’s official provider of quality tourism data and intelligence across international and domestic markets.
New data sources
As technology advances, new data sources and 'complementary data' emerge. These new data sources offer insights traditional surveys can’t, or bring other benefits such as significantly larger and deeper datasets that allow more detailed analysis. They can strengthen or complement official statistics, like our National Visitor Survey (NVS).
We have started publishing monthly domestic and regional mobility data, while we also continue to publish official statistics from the NVS. Regional mobility data measures domestic visitor movement, including for individual regional tourism areas. Check this page in the middle of each month for updated regional mobility data, which will report data from the previous month.
Latest regional mobility data results
The dashboard – movements in regional domestic visitation
Results for the latest month are a good snapshot of recent changes in regional visitor movement by domestic travellers and may also illustrate impacts of recent major events or factors such as weather related disruptions.
The dashboard compares the same month from the previous year and displays the percentage change between these two time periods. Analysis presented in this way is a useful guide to the overall state of the visitor economy in each regional area and confirms developing trends or changing patterns.
Why mobility data is important
Mobility or movement data is one type of complementary data. It is a leading information source for a growing number of countries. This is because it is:
- timely
- relevant
- reliable.
Governments and tourism businesses can use this type of data to better understand movement of people. It can inform policy development, resource allocation and disaster response.
Domestic mobility data model
Our mobility data model measures domestic visitor movement at the national and regional level. The model combines data sources including:
- the estimated resident population (ERP) from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
- mass-aggregated mobile phone network signal contacts
- mobile GPS and app insights
- inputs from our National Visitor Survey (NVS).
We’ve partnered with data science provider DSpark on this domestic mobility data model. The model uses domestic tourism definitions recommended by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
How we know this model works
The graph below shows the close correlation between:
- our proven and trusted NVS data source
- the mobility data model.
Data confidentiality and privacy
Data used in the model is de-identified and aggregated to preserve confidentiality and privacy.
We and our data partners do not use or receive personal identifiers for the input data.
Data has been extrapolated (modified) through benchmarking and imputation.
Estimates must meet minimal sample thresholds for confidentiality and data reliability. Where these thresholds have not been met, data is masked and not reported.
Data complies with guidelines from the Australian Government’s Office of the Information Commissioner (OIAC) and CSIRO’s Data61.
We have been Australia’s trusted authority on tourism data and statistics for 35 years. Our main data collections form part of Australia's System of National Accounts. The ABS uses our data as input to wider statistical metrics. This includes ABS metrics like exports and household expenditure.