Tourism in Australia

[2] In the financial year 2018/19, tourism was Australia's fourth-largest export and over the previous decade was growing faster than national GDP growth.

[4] Popular Australian destinations mainly include the coastal capital cities of Sydney and Melbourne, as well as other high-profile destinations including the other coastal cities of Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Gold Coast, and the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest reef.

This growth will largely be due to key emerging markets, including China, which is estimated to be the largest economic contributor to Australian tourism by 2020.

[14] From the colonial days, the idea of travel has been more natural to Australians than to people long-established at one from their homes, was prone to continue their search for wealth or security for a while, or, having settled down, to return to the old countries to visit their kin and refresh old memories.

The opening of new lands, the establishment of industries and towns, and the consequent dispersal of people over Australia created a habit of mobility and enterprise which encouraged Australians to face the hardships of early travel by coach, on horseback or by ship.

These included the Blue Mountains in New South Wales and the hill and coast resorts close to Melbourne and other major Victorian cities.

[15] The organisation received government funding on top of industry contributions and promoted the country 'vigorously' via a poster campaign, and from 1934–1974 via Walkabout magazine.

A considerable fleet of passenger ships provided frequent and popular services linking most ports between Fremantle and Cairns.

The first cruises from Australia to New Zealand were organised in the summer of 1934–35, and Australians were travelling to Britain for as low as $78 in tourist class in the years immediately preceding the Second World War.

In the period following the Second World War the advent of new and improved methods of transportation, combined with rising standards of living and the energetic publicising of foreign destinations, developed international travel into a mass movement.

The beginning of the Jet Age in 1960, with larger aeroplanes carrying more than 100 passengers at speeds approximating 600 miles per hour, diminished the world by half in terms of time.

Rising standards of living in the post-war period led to greater expenditure on tourism, thus making it more important to the national economy.

Because of the marked increase in incomes and private car ownership among large sections of the population, greater leisure time, three weeks of paid annual holidays (introduced first in New South Wales in 1958) and the introduction of long-service leave, thousands of Australians now travel by road into almost every part of the country.

[22] Eventually, an updated Tourism 2030 document titled THRIVE (THe Re-Imagined Visitor Economy) 2030 strategy[23] was finalised and published in March 2022.

The document was updated to reflect the new Government's initiatives and policy priorities as well as industry actions and State and Territory support statements and launched on 17 March 2023.

The campaign is based on research conducted by Tourism Australia that showed Australians were eager to get involved in promoting their country.

Working holiday visas for Australia are available for those aged 18 to 30 for most citizens from Western Europe, Canada, the United States, and some developed East Asian nations such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

[37] Domestic tourism in general and in particular free caravan and camping sites for overnight accommodation experienced strong demand in 2012.

[38] Australians are big domestic travellers, with a profusion of seaside resort towns in every state (many located on or near good surfing beaches), mountain retreats, plentiful national parks, rivers, fishing locations, wine growing regions, as well as domestic visitation of the major tourist spots.

In 2011, a leading Australian travel agent warned that low-cost carriers such as AirAsia and Jetstar who offered cheap packages to Asia threatened the domestic tourism market.

[47] Schoolies Week is an annual celebration of Year 12 school leavers in late November, many of whom travel to the Gold Coast, where in 2011 they were expected to boost the economy by $60 million.