International tourism results

Year ending December 2024

The International Visitor Survey (IVS) results provide statistics on how international visitors travel within Australia. You can find national, state and territory results for the:

• number of trips taken
• nights spent on a trip
• amount spent in Australia
• total amount spent on a trip.

You can also:

• read about the factors influencing international travel to Australia
• see the changes compared over different timeframes impacted by COVID-19
• read about the return of international visitors to Australia.

Notes on the data

• The IVS state level regional expenditure estimates were revised slightly in this release to capture improvements made to the regional expenditure model. Please see the IVS methodology page for more detail. 
• Unless we say otherwise, we compared the summary results for: 
  • the December quarter 2024 to the December quarter 2019
  • the year ending December 2024 to the year ending December 2019.
• Spend is reported as spend in Australia. Spend in Australia is different to total spend. Total spend includes: 
  • purchases made overseas such as international connections and stopovers, including airfares
  • 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. 

International trips and spend key results

International visitation to Australia continues to recover, with 7.6 million trips to Australia recorded in the year ending December 2024.

The top reasons for travel to Australia in the year ending December 2024 were:

• Holiday travel with 3.2 million trips.
  • 81% of December 2019 levels.
  • Spend in Australia was $11.0 billion, 5% up on December 2019 levels.
• Visiting friends and relatives with 2.6 million trips.
  • On par with December 2019 levels.
  • Spend in Australia was $5.0 billion, 21% up on December 2019 levels.
• Business travel with 779,000 trips.
  • 77% of December 2019 levels.
  • Spend in Australia was $2.0 billion, 95% of December 2019 levels.
• Education with 486,000 trips.
  • 82% of December 2019 levels.
  • Spend in Australia was $11.6 billion, 94% of December 2019 levels.

Top 5 international visitor markets

Australia’s top 5 international markets for the year ending December 2024 were:

• New Zealand with 1.3 million trips.
  • 97% of December 2019 levels. 
  • Spend in Australia was $2.1 billion, 27% up on December 2019 levels. 
• China with 829,000 trips.
  • 62% of December 2019 levels. 
  • Spend in Australia was $8.1 billion, 78% of December 2019 levels. 
• United States of America with 669,000 trips.
  • 87% of December 2019 levels.
  • Spend in Australia was $2.0 billion, 3% up on December 2019 levels.
• United Kingdom with 605,000 trips. 
  • 90% of December 2019 levels.
  • Spend in Australia was $2.2 billion, 23% up on December 2019 levels. 
• India with 421,000 trips.
  • 12% up on December 2019 levels.
  • Spend in Australia was $1.7 billion, 31% up on December 2019 levels. 

Total spend

Total spend in the year ending December 2024 was $48.9 billion. This was 8% up on December 2019 levels. Total spend includes: 

• purchases made overseas such as international connections and stopovers, including airfares
• 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.

Download the report

Data tables

More information

• 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 the Data and research page.