With 7.7 million short term visitors to Australia in the year to March 2025, short term international arrivals are now at 90 per cent of pre-COVID levels, up two per cent on the numbers in the year to December 2024.
Looking at year-on-year figures, international visitation is up seven per cent on a year ago, with spend by visitors in Australia up 15 per cent year on year.
Nights spent in Australia are also up significantly compared to March 2024, rising 15 per cent to 296.4 million.
Visitors are spending significantly longer in Australia than pre-COVID, with visitor nights up by 10 per cent on pre-COVID levels, despite the total number of visitors still being 10 per cent below what they were in 2019.
New Zealand remains Australia’s top visitor source market in terms of number of visitors, with 1.2 million arrivals in the year to March. China is second for arrivals at 860,000 visitors but way out in front as far as spend goes, with Chinese visitors spending $9.2 billion. Chinese visitor spend was more than four times as much as New Zealanders who spent $2.2 billion and a little under four times the second biggest spenders, visitors from the UK, who spent $2.4 billion over the year.
Other source markets in the top five are United States, in third, the UK, in fourth, and India.
The biggest visitor rise by country was also from China, with the number of Chinese visitors increasing by 26 per cent compared to a year ago.
Business events activity figures for the year to March have yet to be released by Tourism Research Australia.
