New Tourism Research Australia (TRA) data shows Australian residents took 29.5 million overnight trips and 70.7 million day trips in the December quarter 2025, spending $40 billion.

The December quarter 2025 release marks the first full year of the Domestic Tourism Statistics collection (DoTS).

DoTS combines the richness and breadth of survey data (collected via face-to-face and online interviews) with the large sample sizes available in mobility data.

Overnight domestic tourism results for the December quarter show a similar level of trips and nights compared with the same period last year, but slightly softer spending.

TRA said this continued the trend observed in recent quarters of Australians being enthusiastic about travelling domestically, but continuing to be cautious with their spending.

Although overnight spending was down by three per cent, overnight trips were on par and nights away were up by one per cent compared with the December quarter 2024.

In the December quarter 2025, Australians spent:

  • $7.5 billion on accommodation
  • $4.2 billion on domestic airfares
  • $4.1 billion on takeaway and restaurant meals
  • $3 billion on petrol
  • $1.6 billion on groceries and self catering.

There were 29.5 million domestic overnight trips during the period (on par with the same period in 2024). Domestic overnight spending reached a total of $27.3 billion (down three per cent year-on-year).

During the period, there were 11 million interstate and intrastate trips taken in NSW, which generated $8 billion in visitor expenditure.

Australians also took 70.7 million day trips during the period, spending $12.7 billion.

Of these:

  • 36.6 million day trips were for holidays
  • 21.5 million day trips were for visiting friends and relatives
  • Five million day trips were for business.

Older Australians lead the way in longer stays

The TRA results show longer trips are more likely to be undertaken by older Australians, while shorter trips are more evenly distributed among age groups.

In the December quarter 2025, 21 million (71 per cent) of overnight trips were between one to three nights in length.

These trips were balanced across age groups, with 30 to 44 year-olds representing the largest share and accounting for 27 per cent or 5.7 million trips.

This was followed by 14 to 29 year-olds and those 60 years and over, both accounting for 25 per cent, while 45 to 59 year olds made up 23 per cent of short trips.

During the period, 6.5 million (22 per cent) of overnight trips were between four to seven nights in length. For these trips, the share of travellers 60 years and over increased to 30 per cent (two million). The trend was most pronounced for trips longer than 15 nights, where half (366,000 trips) the travellers were aged 60 years and over.

Comparatively, the 30 to 44 year age group saw the largest decrease in share of overnight trips as the length of the trip increased, accounting for 27 per cent of one to three night trips but only 17 per cent of trips 15 nights or longer.

Learn more here.