International Visitor Survey monthly snapshot May 2023

International Tourism May 2023

The International Visitor Survey (IVS) monthly snapshots estimate tourism activity in the related month. We also produce quarterly and annual international tourism results.

Notes on the data

• This report compares the month of May 2023 with the pre-pandemic month of May 2019.
• Spend in Australia is different to total spend. Total spend includes purchases made overseas such as international connections and stopovers, including airfares, and other pre-travel or post-travel spend in the source market or elsewhere outside Australia on things like luggage, visas, duty-free retail and ground transport.
• Unless we say otherwise, spend is reported as spend in Australia. The relevant statistics standard is the United Nations Statistics Commission's International Recommendations for Tourism Statistics 2008. It requires that inbound expenditure includes only expenditure in the economy of reference.
• January 2019 to May 2019 estimates were updated on 22 August 2023.

Key results

International visitation to Australia continues to recover after COVID-19. There were 481,000 trips to Australia in the month of May 2023.

The top 3 main reasons for travel to Australia in the month of May 2023 were:

• Holiday travel with 177,000 trips.
  • This was 61% of pre-COVID levels.
  • Spend was $523 million, 83% of pre-COVID levels.
• Visiting friends and relatives with 173,000 trips.
  • This was 93% of pre-COVID levels.
  • Spend was $246 million, 91% of pre-COVID levels.
• Business travel with 71,000 trips.
  • This was 77% of pre-COVID levels.
  • Spend was $187 million, 3 per cent higher than pre-COVID levels.

Spend by international students contributed 32% or $541 million of the total monthly international visitor spend.

Top 5 international visitor markets

Australia’s top 5 international markets in the month of May 2023 were:

• New Zealand with 91,000 trips.
  • This was 83% of pre-COVID levels.
  • Spend was $143 million, 6% greater than pre-COVID levels.
• United States of America with 40,000 trips.
  • This was 75% of pre-COVID levels.
  • Spend was $149 million, 28% greater than pre-COVID levels.
• India with 38,000 trips.
  • This was 2% greater than pre-COVID levels.
  • Spend was $100 million, 13% greater than pre-COVID levels.
• Singapore with 33,000 trips.
  • This was 89% of pre-COVID levels.
  • Spend was $96 million, 37% greater than pre-COVID levels.
• China with 31,000 trips.
  • This was 34% of pre-COVID levels.
  • Spend was $274 million, 74% of pre-COVID levels.

Regional and capital city visitors and spend

In May 2023, international visitors made 446,000 trips to Australia’s capital cities.

• This was 76% of pre-COVID levels.
• Spend was $1.5 billion, 7 per cent higher than pre-COVID levels.

In May 2023, international visitors made 131,000 trips to Australia’s regional areas.

• This was 74% of pre-COVID levels.
• Spend was $206 million, 76% of pre-COVID levels.

Total spend

Total spend in May 2023 was $2.6 billion. This was 4% higher than May 2019 levels. Total spend includes purchases made overseas such as international connections and stopovers, including airfares, and other pre-travel or post-travel spend in the source market or elsewhere outside Australia on things like luggage, visas, duty-free retail and ground transport.

Explore international visitor data

Interact with our data for international visitation to Australia.

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 International Visitor Survey Methodology.
• Find older data tables and other publications on our Data and research page.