The sector has demonstrated resilience and adaptability, delivering improved outcomes across key performance measures following the impact of COVID-19.
NSW welcomed 124.6 million total visitors during the period, who stayed 219.5 million nights and spent $55.9 billion.
Compared with the 2023–24 financial year, visitors grew 4.1 per
cent, nights grew 0.04 per cent and expenditure grew 5.7 per cent.
Growth in visitors was driven mainly by the domestic market, while growth in nights and expenditure was driven mainly by the international market.
International visitors rose by 5.4 per cent and domestic day trip visitors grew by 6.4 per cent. Domestic overnight visitors declined slightly by 0.4 per cent.
International expenditure in NSW reached a record high during the 2024–25 financial year, however visitors remained 10.8 per cent below 2018–19 financial year levels. Notably, international visitors only account for three per cent of the total visitors to NSW, but account for 25 per cent of the total visitor spend, with this value continuing to grow.
During the 2024–25 financial year, the domestic day trip travel sector remained the largest by visitor, while the domestic overnight travel sector delivered the greatest share of expenditure.
Both the international travel sector (46 per cent) and the domestic overnight travel sector (54 per cent) contributed nearly even shares of the total visitor nights.
International performance
NSW continued to lead Australia during the 2024–25 financial year, receiving 50 per cent of all international visitors to the country who stayed 34 per cent of all nights and contributed 37 per cent of all expenditure.
The state welcomed 3.9 million international visitors, up 5.4 per cent on the previous year. These visitors stayed 101.8 million nights (up 2.8 per cent) and spent a record $13.9 billion (up 15.1 per cent).
International visitation to NSW increased by 200,135 visitors in the 2024–25 financial year. However, when compared to the 2018–19 financial year, international visitors to NSW were still down by 474,269 visitors.
This year, the top three international source markets to NSW were China, the United States and New Zealand, while the most common purpose of visit was a holiday.
Domestic performance
NSW welcomed 120.7 million domestic visitors in the 2024–25 financial year (up 4.1 per cent), who spent $42 billion (a 2.8 per cent increase).
Overnight visitors stayed 117.6 million nights, down 2.2 per cent. NSW maintained its lead position among Australian states and territories, accounting for 32 per cent of total visitors, 31 per cent of total nights and 30 per cent of total expenditure.
Of these, 39.2 million were domestic overnight visitors (down 0.4 per cent), who spent $29.2 billion (up 2.8 per cent), and 81.5 million were domestic day trip visitors (up 6.4 per cent), who spent $12.8 billion (up three per cent).
Changes to data reporting
From 1 January 2025, Tourism Research Australia (TRA) introduced a new methodology for collecting Domestic tourism data: Domestic Tourism Statistics (DoTS) collection.
DoTS replaced the National Visitor Survey (NVS) and provides a world-leading approach to measuring domestic tourism statistics by bringing together mobility and survey data to produce more granular and timely outputs.
As DoTS is not comparable with NVS, domestic tourism data reporting will be impacted until the year ended 31 December 2026 (released March 2027).
Current reporting available through Destination NSW has changed to reflect these limitations during the transition period.
Domestic visitation results prior to 2025 in the DoTS program are
backcast and adjusted to account for differences in methodology between the NVS and DoTS.
TRA has advised caution should be used when interpreting comparisons made to the backcast data.
Further reporting will be available via the Destination NSW corporate website when more data becomes publishable in the DoTS program.
For more information visit the TRA website at tra.gov.au
