The long-term outlook for Australia’s visitor economy remains bright, despite the impact of interest rate rises and lower household savings rates in the near term, but a full recovery may take until 2025, according to Tourism Research Australia’s 2022 State of the Industry report.
In 2022, total tourism spend in Australia surpassed the 2019 level, driven by the strong recovery in domestic travel which accounted for 91% of total spend in Australia in 2022, up from 77% in 2019.
Australia welcomed 3.4 million international visitors in 2022, down 61% compared to 2019. Of these, almost half (47%) were for the purpose of visiting friends and relatives. India, Singapore, United Kingdom and New Zealand were the fastest markets to return.
International visitor spend for the year was AU$12.7 billion, which was down by 59% on 2019.
When it came to Australians travelling overseas, there were 5.2 million resident returns recorded in 2022, which was 46% of the pre-pandemic level.
On the accommodation front, Australia hit a record high of 5,945 commercial accommodation establishments (10 or more rooms) in 2022, according to STR – a 3.2% increase on December 2019 – in line with rising demand.
The average occupancy rate for commercial accommodation increased across all states and territories in Australia in 2022 and was 65% on average across the year higher than in the past two years, which averaged 43% and 47%, but below the rate of 74% in 2019.
The average room rate and Revenue per available room (RevPAR) both recovered to pre-pandemic levels in 2022.
In December 2022, the average daily rate (ADR) was $265, up 17% on December 2021. On average over the year, ADR was 24% higher than in 2021.
As was the case for occupancy rates, the largest increases in ADR and RevPAR occurred in the luxury and upper upscale classes of accommodation.