Regional Tourism Satellite Account

About this report

The Regional Tourism Satellite Accounts (RTSA) present annual data for Australia’s tourism regions. The results in the RTSA are consistent with the State Tourism Satellite Accounts and the National Tourism Satellite Accounts.

The data in this report includes: 

• tourism gross value added (GVA) – direct, indirect, and total 
• tourism gross regional product (GRP) – direct, indirect, and total 
• tourism filled jobs by full-time or part-time 
• tourism consumption by visitor type (international or domestic). 

This data allows for comparison between: 

• individual regions 
• the tourism industry and other industries in the economy.

Key findings

The visitor economy recovered strongly in 2022-23 following the most challenging period of the pandemic. At a national level, direct tourism GVA in nominal terms grew by 74.5% and filled jobs grew by 41.5% in 2022-23, compared with 2021-22.

Growth in GVA and filled jobs occurred across almost all tourism regions in Australia (74 of 76 tourism regions recorded growth).

GVA growth in 2022-23 compared with 2021-22 across the regions was generally strong, with:

• GVA growth of more than 50% in half of all 76 tourism regions (50% or 38 tourism regions)
• GVA growth of between 20% and 50% in 28 tourism regions (or 37% of tourism regions)
• GVA growth of less than 20% in 8 tourism regions (11% of tourism regions)
• GVA declining in 2 tourism regions.

In terms of direct tourism filled jobs, growth in 2022-23 when compared with 2021-22 was typically less than for GVA across the regions, with:

• filled jobs growth of more than 50% in 7 tourism regions (or 9% of tourism regions)
• filled jobs growth of between 20% and 50% in 42 tourism regions (or 55% of tourism regions)
• filled jobs growth of 20% or less in 25 tourism regions (or 33% of tourism regions)
• a decline in filled jobs in 2 tourism regions.

Figure 1. Number of tourism regions by rate of growth in direct tourism GVA and filled jobs, 2022-23 compared with 2021-22.

The tourism share of total regional GVA and regional filled jobs was greater for regional areas than for capital cities. In 2022-23:

• The tourism share of nominal GVA was 3.1% in regional areas, compared with 2.0% in capital cities including the Gold Coast.
• Tourism’s share of direct tourism filled jobs was 6.7% in regional areas, compared with 2.9% in the capital cities.
• Across most states and territories, the tourism share of GVA was higher in regional areas than the capital city. However, for Tasmania the rate was the same for regional areas and the Hobart tourism region.
• Tourism’s share of filled jobs was higher in regional areas than capital cities for all states and territories. This difference was most pronounced in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia (Table 1).

Table 1. Direct tourism GVA and tourism filled jobs shares of capital city and regional areas in 2022-23 by state/territory.

The RTSA data also highlights the importance of tourism to each of Australia’s 76 tourism regions. Figure 2 shows the 20 tourism regions where tourism contributed the highest shares of total GVA and filled jobs in 2022-23. These included:

• Lasseter (Northern Territory) – where tourism revenue accounted for 75% of the region’s total GVA and 15% of all jobs
• Kangaroo Island (South Australia) – where tourism revenue accounted for 27% of the region’s total GVA and 38% of all jobs
• East Coast (Tasmania) – where tourism revenue accounted for 19% of the region’s total GVA and 32% of all jobs
• Phillip Island (Victoria) – where tourism revenue accounted for 18% of the region’s total GVA and 30% of all jobs
• Spa Country (Victoria) – where tourism revenue accounted for 17% of the region’s total GVA and 46% of all jobs
• Whitsundays (Queensland) – where tourism revenue accounted for 12% of the region’s total GVA and 22% of all jobs.

Figure 2. Tourism share of regional GVA and filled jobs in 2022-23 by tourism region.

State and territory data tables

You can explore state and territory data by choosing a state or territory from the tabs and selection a tourism region.

You can view:

• regional summary – a time series of the data from 2006–07 to 2022–23
• consumption by tourism product
• gross value added – the economic value of goods and services produced
• tourism filled jobs by industry
• state summary – direct, indirect, and total results.

Industries in tourism are grouped in 2 categories: 

• tourism characteristic industry – industries in this group must have at least 25% of their output consumed by visitors
• tourism connected industry – industries in this group must have a tourism-related product identifiable and appropriate for visitor consumption.

Download regional data tables

Explore summary data

You can explore summary data by:

• choosing a state and a tourism region using the drop-down menus
• viewing the data for 2022–23 and the change from 2021–22 in the table
• hovering over the chart elements to show total result.

Notes on the data

Results for smaller tourism regions with a visitor sample at or below 500 are less reliable than higher sample results. For this reason, estimates of GVA, GRP and filled jobs for smaller regions are traditionally ‘smoothed’ by taking an average over 3 years.

However, because of the COVID-19 impacts in recent years, no smoothing has been applied since 2018–19. There is a risk smoothing could mask the extent of recovery in Australia’s regional economies following the pandemic.

Revisions to time series data

In line with National and State Tourism Satellite Accounts, revisions have been applied to RTSA estimates from 2019–20 to 2021–22. Estimates prior to 2019-20 remain unchanged from last year’s publication. There are two data sources that typically contribute to revisions:

• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) National Accounts data. Revisions occur yearly and directly affect GVA for each region, as well as filled jobs.
• Tourism Research Australia’s regional expenditure data, which affects tourism’s economic value and share of regional economies.