International tourism results June 2020

Year ending June 2020

Coronavirus (COVID-19) has had a significant impact on international travel to Australia. Our data shows the effects of this on Australia’s tourism industry.

You can:

• read about the factors influencing international travel to Australia
• see the changes compared over the various timeframes impacted by bushfires and Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Results for year ending June 2020

International travel to Australia was restricted from 20 March 2020 due to COVID-19. This resulted in:

• international visitor numbers falling 28% to 6.2 million
• spend falling 25% to $33.3 billion. This was a loss of $11.3 billion on 2018–19
• nights falling 26% to 203 million

Results by purpose of visit

All purpose-of-visit categories have seen significant declines:

• business down 31% to 691,000
• holiday down 30% to 2.8 million
• visiting friends or relatives down 25% to 1.9 million
• education down 24% to 446,000

Top 5 markets

China has seen the sharpest fall among Australia’s top 5 markets. Restrictions were placed on visitors from China from 1 February due to COVID-19. Visitors from China fell 38% to 821,000 and spend was down 29% to $8.4 billion.

Results for the remaining top 5 markets:

• United States of America:
  • Visitors down 28% to 548,000
  • Spend down 27% to $2.9 billion
• New Zealand:
  • Visitors down 27% to 929,000
  • Spend down 26% to $1.9 billion
• United Kingdom:
  • Visitors down 21% to 530,000
  • Spend down 23% to $2.6 billion
• Japan:
  • Visitors down 23% to 345,000
  • Spend down 23% to $1.6 billion

State and territory results

Australian states and territories were severely impacted by the restrictions on international visitors. Results show:

• declines in visitor numbers have ranged from 21% for the Northern Territory to 34% for the Australian Capital Territory
• declines in international spend have ranged from 16% for South Australia to 39% for the Australian Capital Territory

June quarter 2020

In the June quarter:

• Australia’s border restrictions remained in place
• less than 10,000 international visitors arrived in Australia, compared with 1.9 million in June quarter 2019
• there was an estimated loss of $8.2 billion on the June quarter 2019

Calendar year 2020

COVID-19 started to impact international travel to Australia in February 2020. At that time, restrictions were also placed on some international markets. Australia then imposed border restrictions to international travellers from 20 March.
Australian tourism has seen overall losses of $33.7 billion for January to June 2020. This is made up of:

• international tourism losses of $12 billion (53%) since the start of 2020 to the end of June
• domestic tourism losses of $21.7 billion from overnight travel ($17.7 billion) and day travel ($4 billion) over the same period

Data tables

Read more

• Read the International Visitor Survey methodology