With the latest quarterly and annual visitation statistics out today, the number of short-term international arrivals into Australia over the year to June 2025 sat at 7.8 million travellers – up slightly on the 7.7 million visitors for the year to March, but still 90 per cent of June 2019 figures, which is the same recovery level as three months ago.
The numbers highlight what will become more than six years of lost visitation growth for Australia, as the nation struggles to return to pre-pandemic levels of international arrivals, let alone grow past the benchmark set last decade.
While the number of short-term travellers to Australia remains subdued, visitor spend and trip duration continues to trend upwards.
International visitor spend in Australia for the year to June was $37.5 billion, up 18 per cent on a year ago and 22 per cent on pre-COVID levels.
Nights spent in Australia were 301 million, up eight per cent on June 2024 and 10 per cent on 2019. Given the number of travellers is 10 per cent lower, this figure represents a significant increase in trip length.
Australia’s top five international source markets remained the same as at June 2024, with New Zealand our largest source market, followed by China, the USA, the UK and India.
Visitors from China rose significantly – up 20 per cent compared to a year ago – and visitors from the UK and India were both up nine per cent, while US visitors fell slightly, down one per cent. New Zealand visitors also crept up slightly, rising by two per cent compared to a year ago.
Chinese visitors continued to be the biggest spenders by far, contributing $9.8 billion to Australia’s economy while here. Travellers from China also spent the most collective nights in Australia – just over 50.5 million – with India coming in a distant second at 29.5 million nights.
Visitors travelling to Australia for business fell over the year to June, compared to the previous year, with business visitors down four per cent.
In terms of where visitors went in Australia, New South Wales remains the most visited state, with Victoria second, Queensland third and Western Australia fourth. However, Australia’s national capital notched up the greatest percentage increase in travellers with an 18 per cent rise, followed by WA, which saw a 15 per cent increase in visitors.
Victoria and the Northern Territory each saw visitors grow by 12 per cent when comparing annual results from June 2024 to June 2025, with Victoria’s visitor growth significantly outpacing both NSW and Queensland, which saw five per cent and three per cent growth respectively.
