Each year, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) produces the National Tourism Satellite Account (NTSA) in line with international standards. The NTSA examines Australia’s tourism performance through an economic lens. The Tourism Satellite Account is required to measure and understand:
- the value of goods and services consumed by visitors
- the tourism contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), international trade and employment.
Access the NTSA data and read the ABS report on this data here: National Tourism Satellite Account.
Tourism Research Australia (TRA) has generated the below summary of the NTSA data focusing on the 2024–25 financial year. Comparisons are made also to previous financial years.
Tourism shows steady improvement
The value of Australia’s tourism industry continued to increase in 2024–25, led by growth in the number of international travellers and domestic day-trip travellers. In 2024–25:
- international visitor arrivals to Australia increased by 5% to 8.4 million visitors
- domestic daytrips grew by 8% to 266 million day trips
- domestic overnight trips remained steady at 113 million trips.
TRA expects to see further growth in international travel and spend over future years, and domestic tourism spend is also expected to continue to rise, according to TRA’s tourism forecasts for Australia.
This year’s ABS data release includes two key changes that have affected the values published for previous years. Therefore, caution is recommended for users when comparing results with previously published data. The two changes are:
- Adoption of TRA’s new data collection for domestic tourism statistics (DoTS), in place of the previous National Visitor Survey (NVS) data and the resulting shift in historical values.
- Enhancements to employment ratios for the education and sports and recreation industries were made to better reflect their relevance to the visitor economy.
Key results
Total tourism consumption was $211.1 billion in 2024–25. This was up by 3.4% or $7.0 billion on 2023–24, and up by 43% or $63.6 billion on 2018–19 (the last full financial year pre-pandemic). Similarly, tourism GDP, tourism filled jobs, tourism exports and tourism imports all increased in 2024–25 and reached record high levels. This resulted in:
- a 3.8% increase in tourism GDP in current prices, which rose from a revised $78.2 billion in 2023–24 to $81.1 billion in the 2024–25 release. When compared with 2018–19, tourism GDP in current prices was 44% or $24.6 billion higher.
- tourism GDP as a share of the national economy remained steady at 2.9%.
- tourism filled jobs increased by 2.0% from 682,100 in 2023–24 to 696,000 in 2024–25. This was 23% or 130,800 more jobs than in 2018–19.
- tourism’s share of total filled jobs remained steady at 4.4% (1 in 23 jobs). In 2018–19, tourism accounted for 4.1%, or 1 in 24 jobs in the Australian workforce.
- tourism exports from international visitors spend on Australian goods and services rose by $3.9 billion to $42.3 billion in 2024–25. This is $5.2 billion or 14% higher than the $37.1 billion of tourism exports in 2018–19.
- tourism imports from the money Australian residents spend when travelling overseas grew by $3.6 billion to $80.6 billion in 2024–25. This compares with $58.1 billion in tourism imports in 2018–19.
Tourism consumption results
Tourism consumption was $211.1 billion in 2024–25. This was 3.4% (or $7.0 billion) up on the previous year. It was also 43% ($63.6 billion) higher than the pre–pandemic level in 2018–19.
The growth in total tourism consumption in current prices over 2023–24 levels was largely (55%) driven by consumption by international visitors.
All categories of goods and services consumed experienced growth in 2024-25 (Figure 1). The largest growth category was education services, which increased by 13% on the previous year. Compared with 2023–24, tourism consumption by category in 2024-25 was:
- 6.0% (or $0.5 billion) higher for recreational, cultural and gambling services
- 4.5% (or $0.5 billion) higher for travel agency and tour operator services
- 4.2% (or $1.0 billion) higher for food and drinks
- 4.1% (or $0.8 billion) higher for shopping, gifts and souvenirs
- 3.4% (or $2.3 billion) higher for accommodation and food services
- 1.1% (or $0.7 billion) higher for transport.
helpHover over lines and columns to show consumption data
Source: ABS, Australian National Accounts: Tourism Satellite Account, 2024–25, December 2025
GDP from tourism
GDP from tourism was $81.1 billion in 2024–25. This was an increase of 3.8% ($3.0 billion) when compared with 2023–24. In current prices (nominal terms), GDP from tourism was 44% higher in 2024–25 than in 2018–19 (pre-pandemic). In chain volume terms (real terms) GDP from tourism rose by 0.7% in 2024-25 on the previous year. Tourism’s share of all economic activity in Australia remained steady at 2.9% in 2024-25, unchanged from 2023-24 (Figure 2).
helpHover over lines and columns to show GDP data
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian National Accounts: Tourism Satellite Account, 2024–25, December 2025
Tourism exports and imports
Tourism exports and imports both rose in 2024–25, although growth moderated compared with the previous year. Tourism exports and imports both reached new record highs in 2024–25 (Figure 3).
Exports
Tourism exports are the value of spending on Australian goods and services by international visitors.
The value of tourism exports was $42.3 billion in 2024–25. This was up by 10% or $3.9 billion compared with 2023–24 and 14% or $5.2 billion higher than the $37.1 billion of exports in 2018–19.
Imports
Tourism imports are the value of spending by Australian residents during overseas travel.
The value of tourism imports was $80.6 billion in 2024–25. This was 4.7% higher than the $77.0 billion of imports for 2023–24 and 39% higher than the $58.1 billion of tourism imports for 2018–19.
helpHover over lines to show tourism trade data
Source: ABS, Australian National Accounts: Tourism Satellite Account, 2024–25, December 2025
Tourism filled jobs
There were 696,000 filled jobs in tourism in 2024–25. This was 2.0% higher than the 682,100 in 2023–24 (Figure 4). The number of filled jobs was 23% or 130,800 higher than in the pre-pandemic year of 2018–19.
helpHover over lines and columns to show employment data
Source: ABS, Australian National Accounts: Tourism Satellite Account, 2024–25, December 2025
Growth in tourism filled jobs was on par with growth in all Australian jobs in 2024–25 and as a result, tourism’s share of total filled jobs remained steady at 4.4%. In 2018–19, there were 565,200 filled tourism jobs, representing 4.1% of total filled jobs in Australia.
Changes in this issue
Transition from TRA’s National Visitor Survey (NVS) to Domestic Tourism Statistics (DoTS)
In January 2025, TRA began producing Australia’s official domestic tourism statistics using a new approach: the Domestic Tourism Statistics (DoTS) collection. This marked the end of the long-running National Visitor Survey (NVS), which had been in place since 1998. DoTS is a revolutionary, world-leading approach to measuring official tourism statistics. It brings together face-to-face and online survey responses with large-scale mobility data.
While the core survey questions remain largely the same, the data collection method and modelling has changed. For this reason, the new DoTS data should not be compared with the historic NVS data. DoTS back cast series for key tourism metrics have been produced for the period 2019 to 2024. There are some differences in reported volumes and trends between the back cast data and the historical NVS data. For further details on the new method of collection please see Changes to the Australian resident tourism statistics collection in 2025.
Incorporating the DoTS data and DoTS back cast data has generated revisions to a range of TSA data series.
Changes to ABS Tourism Employment Ratios
Enhancements have been made to employment ratios by the ABS for the education and sports and recreation industries to better reflect their relevance to the visitor economy. These improvements ensure the ratios more accurately represent tourism-related employment. For further details on these changes, refer to the History of changes section on the ABS website.
Tourism industry classification changes
‘All other industries’ has been changed to ‘Other tourism Industries’.