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Indicator: HS-79 Number of international and domestic tourists

Data

International Tourism in Australia, 2001 and 2004

	2001		2004
State and Region	No. of Visitors (000)	% Visitors	No. of Visitors (000)	% Visitors
New South Wales
Sydney Region	2 757	23.74	2 768	24.53
North Coast	389	3.35	357	3.16
Canberra	191	1.65	160	1.42
Inland	178	1.53	207	1.84
South Coast	68	0.58	65	0.58
Snowy Mountains	26	0.22	20	0.18
Outback	24	0.21	17	0.15
NSW Total	3 633	31.28	3 594	31.86
Victoria
Melbourne Region	1 282	11.03	1 372	12.15
Inland	157	1.35	202	1.79
South Coast	153	1.32	167	1.48
Gippsland/Lakes	74	0.64	74	0.65
VIC Total	1 666	14.34	1 815	16.07
Queensland
South East Queensland	1 836	15.81	1 888	16.73
Tropical North Queensland	975	8.40	938	8.31
North Coast/Reef	681	5.86	635	5.63
Outback	55	0.47	38	0.34
Inland	33	0.28	31	0.28
QLD Total	3 580	30.82	3 530	31.29
South Australia
Adelaide Region	382	3.29	344	3.05
Outback	67	0.58	49	0.44
Limestone Coast	59	0.51	45	0.39
Flinders Ranges	58	0.50	43	0.38
Kangaroo Island	34	0.29	35	0.31
York and Eyre Peninsulas	19	0.17	21	0.19
Riverland/Murray	13	0.11	13	0.12
SA Total	632	5.45	550	4.88
Western Australia
Perth Region	557	4.80	572	5.07
South West	126	1.09	99	0.88
Coral Coast	76	0.65	69	0.61
North West	59	0.51	51	0.45
Outback	48	0.41	46	0.41
WA Total	866	7.46	837	7.42
Tasmania
Hobart Region	87	0.75	89	0.79
Northern	49	0.43	50	0.44
West Coast	39	0.54	33	0.47
East Coast	26	0.22	27	0.24
Southern	22	0.19	21	0.19
TAS Total	223	2.13	220	2.13
Northern Territory
Outback	664	5.72	490	4.34
Darwin Region	203	1.75	144	1.28
Tropical North	123	1.06	86	0.76
NT Total	990	8.53	720	6.38
Australia Total	11 592	100.00	11 266	100.00

Source: Tourism Australia 2005, International Tourism in Australia, 2001 and 2004, Tourism Australia, Canberra.

Domestic Tourism in Australia by Tourism Regions – 2001 and 2004

Domestic Tourism in Australia, 2001					Domestic Tourism in Australia, 2004
State and Region	No. of Overnight trips (000)	% Overnight trips	No. of Visitor nights (000)	% of Visitor nights	State and Region	No. of Overnight trips (000)	% Overnight trips	No. of Visitor nights (000)	% Visitor nights
NSW					NSW
Sydney Region	13 416	15.63	37 973	13.34	Sydney Region	12 834	14.70	35 527	12.06
Inland	6 490	7.56	17 204	6.04	Inland	6 653	7.62	17 661	5.99
North Coast	5 096	5.94	19 831	6.97	North Coast	5 217	5.98	20 376	6.92
South Coast	2 657	3.10	10 051	3.53	South Coast	2 486	2.85	9 323	3.16
Canberra	2 107	2.45	5 749	2.02	Canberra	1 887	2.16	5 107	1.73
Snowy Mountains	660	0.77	2 052	0.72	Snowy Mountains	780	0.89	3 051	1.04
Outback	497	0.58	1 398	0.49	Outback	491	0.56	2 735	0.93
NSW Total	30 923	36.03	94 258	33.11	NSW Total	30 348	34.76	93 780	31.83
VIC					VIC
Melbourne Region	10 105	11.77	30 628	10.76	Melbourne Region	9 534	10.92	28 027	9.51
Inland	5 754	6.70	14 602	5.13	Inland	6 090	6.98	16 283	5.53
South Coast	1 694	1.97	5 026	1.77	Gippsland/Lakes	1 861	2.13	5 300	1.80
Gippsland/Lakes	1 681	1.96	4 840	1.70	South Coast	1 752	2.01	4 889	1.66
VIC Total	19 234	22.40	55 096	19.36	VIC Total	19 237	22.04	54 499	18.50
QLD					QLD
South East Queensland	10 298	12.00	41 858	14.70	South East Queensland	11 106	12.72	44 903	15.24
North Coast/Reef	3 947	4.60	14 878	5.23	North Coast/Reef	3 724	4.27	14 695	4.99
Tropical North Queensland	2 186	2.55	11 107	3.90	Tropical North Queensland	2 419	2.77	11 302	3.84
Inland	1 221	1.42	3 259	1.14	Inland	1 453	1.66	3 588	1.22
Outback	714	0.83	3 226	1.13	Outback	677	0.78	3 178	1.08
QLD Total	18 366	21.40	74 328	26.10	QLD Total	19 379	22.20	77 666	26.37
SA					SA
Adelaide Region	3 373	3.93	10 567	3.71	Adelaide Region	3 600	4.12	11 996	4.07
York and Eyre Peninsulas	790	0.92	2 915	1.02	York and Eyre Peninsulas	914	1.05	3 546	1.20
Riverland/Murray	651	0.76	1 809	0.64	Riverland/Murray	698	0.80	2 037	0.69
Limestone Coast	646	0.75	1 696	0.60	Limestone Coast	580	0.66	1 580	0.54
Flinders Ranges	419	0.49	1 254	0.44	Flinders Ranges	432	0.49	1 120	0.38
Outback	181	0.21	631	0.22	Outback	178	0.20	719	0.24
Kangaroo Island	84	0.10	365	0.13	Kangaroo Island	104	0.12	482	0.16
SA Total	6 144	7.16	19 237	6.76	SA Total	6 506	7.44	21 480	7.28
WA					WA
Perth Region	3 314	3.86	10 945	3.84	Perth Region	3 161	3.62	11 742	3.99
South West	1 828	2.13	6 755	2.37	South West	2 026	2.32	8 142	2.76
Outback	775	0.90	3 020	1.06	Outback	782	0.90	3 106	1.05
Coral Coast	638	0.74	3 099	1.09	Coral Coast	606	0.69	3 203	1.09
North West	556	0.65	3 717	1.31	North West	517	0.59	4 572	1.55
WA Total	7 111	8.28	27 536	9.67	WA Total	7 092	8.12	30 765	10.44
TAS					TAS
Hobart Region	702	0.82	2 607	0.92	Hobart Region	1 025	1.17	3 776	1.28
Northern	673	0.78	1 900	0.67	Northern	820	0.94	2 275	0.77
West Coast	427	0.68	1 176	0.52	West Coast	493	0.82	1 678	0.73
East Coast	299	0.35	857	0.30	East Coast	375	0.43	1 002	0.34
Southern	267	0.31	642	0.23	Southern	311	0.36	844	0.29
TAS Total	2 368	2.94	7 182	2.64	TAS Total	3 024	3.72	9 575	3.41
NT					NT
Outback	824	0.96	3 091	1.09	Outback	721	0.83	2 429	0.82
Darwin Region	502	0.58	2 778	0.98	Darwin Region	531	0.61	3 300	1.12
Tropical North	198	0.23	876	0.31	Tropical North	226	0.26	672	0.23
NT Total	1 524	1.77	6 745	2.38	NT Total	1 478	1.70	6 401	2.17
Australia Total	8 5670	100.00	28 4382	100.00	Australia Total	87 064	100.00	294 166	100.00
Notes: Correlation between overnight trips and visitor nights indices are 0.97

Tourism Australia 2005, Domestic Tourism in Australia by Tourism Regions 2001 and 2004, Tourism Australia, Canberra.

Domestic Tourism by Nature of Activity, 2001 and 2004

	2001		2004
	No. (000)	%	No. (000)	%
Outdoor or nature activities
Sum of Overnight trips	23 408	18.2	24 818	18.3
Sum of Visitor nights	109 435	20.5	114 593	20.0
Sports or active outdoor activities
Sum of Overnight trips	16 691	13.0	17 210	12.7
Sum of Visitor nights	74 260	13.9	79 091	13.8
Arts, heritage or festival activities
Sum of Overnight trips	7 602	5.9	9 184	6.8
Sum of Visitor nights	34 749	6.5	41 241	7.2
Local attractions or tourist activities
Sum of Overnight trips	9 346	7.3	12 356	9.1
Sum of Visitor nights	48 892	9.2	60 954	10.7
Social and others
Sum of Overnight trips	60 904	47.4	62 401	46.1
Sum of Visitor nights	236 994	44.4	245 902	43.0
None of these
Sum of Overnight trips	9 843	7.7	8 867	6.5
Sum of Visitor nights	24 008	4.5	23 692	4.1
Activities not asked
Sum of Overnight trips	647	0.5	552	0.4
Sum of Visitor nights	5 970	1.1	6 280	1.1
Totals
Sum of Overnight trips	128 441	100.0	135 388	100.0
Sum of Visitor nights	534 308	100.0	571 753	100.0

Tourism Australia 2005, Domestic Tourism by Nature of Activity, 2001 and 2004, Tourism Australia, Canberra.

• Overnight trips 1998 to 2004 (XLS - 46 KB) 

• Environmental Issues: People's Views and Practices (Word -131 KB) 

What the data mean

In 2003-04 Australia received more than five million international visitors and Australians themselves made over 85 million visits to places within Australia. For international visitors to Australia those travelling for tourism represent at least two thirds of this total.

Nearly two thirds (64%) of the tourists from overseas in 2004 visited the regions around capital cities compared to 6% who visited the outback regions. These figures were 61% and 7% respectively in 2001. The second largest of overseas tourists (17%) visited the tropical and subtropical east coast region (approximately from Byron Bay to Cairns), which includes the rainforest and reef. Only in the Northern Territory did the number of tourists visiting the outback exceed those visiting the capital city region.

Capital cities were the dominant destination for domestic tourism as well accounting for about half of total visitor nights. A further 25% was to regions contiguous with city regions.

Around 20% of total visitor nights in domestic tourism was spent on outdoor or nature activities. Although trend data on visitor numbers are not available, surveys of the attitudes of Australians indicate that proportion of people visiting a World Heritage area, National or State Park declined over the period from 63% in1992 to 52% in 2004.

Issues for which this is an indicator and why

Human Settlements — External pressures on human settlements - Tourism 

The number of tourists, both international and domestic, adds to the population pressures created by human settlements on the environment through the use of infrastructure and services.