National Visitor Survey (NVS) results, year ending December 2020

Figure 1: Key domestic visitor highlights for Victoria

Figure 2: Domestic overnight visitation summary results

For the year ending December 2020 (released March 2021), key points include:

• The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant negative impact on the domestic tourism market across Australia, with Victoria recording the biggest declines across all measures in the year ending December 2020 compared to key competitors, reflecting the deep impacts of its second wave of infections from mid-2020.
• Total domestic expenditure (overnight and daytrip) in Victoria fell 56 per cent year-on-year to $10.5 billion. This represents a substantial decline of $13.2 billion over the year (from a peak of $23.7 billion in the year ending December 2019).
• Domestic overnight expenditure in Victoria decreased severely by 59 per cent to $7.0 billion in the year ending December 2020, down $10.0 billion compared to the same period in 2019. Declines were noted nationally, with Victoria suffering a fall larger than the national average decline (-43%).
• Melbourne suffered a massive fall in domestic overnight spend (-73% to $2.6 billion) with a loss of $6.9 billion compared to 2019 (or 69% of the total decrease in domestic overnight spend in Victoria) due to its higher reliance on interstate visitors. This was more than double the net volume loss in spend recorded by regional Victoria which noted a decline of $3.1 billion (-41% to $4.4 billion) compared to 2019. As such, domestic overnight spend is now higher in regional Victorian than in Melbourne, generating 63 per cent of total domestic overnight spend in Victoria in the year ending December 2020 compared to 44 per cent in 2019. The decrease in regional Victoria was driven by the loss of intrastate overnight spend (-$1.9 billion), while Melbourne’s loss was impacted most by the severe drop in interstate overnight spend (-$4.7 billion) compared to 2019.
• Daytrip spend to/within Victoria declined by 47 per cent to $3.5 billion in the year ending December 2020 (-$3.2 billion in spend compared to 2019), with a higher rate of decline in daytrip spend in Melbourne (-52%) compared to regional Victoria (-44%).
• Results comparing the nine months to December 2020 to the same period in 2019 highlight the severe negative impacts of the crisis on Victoria’s visitor economy to date. Melbourne noted a decline in overnight spend of $6.7 billion (-91%) in the nine months ending December 2020, while regional Victoria noted a decline of $3.1 billion (-59%). Overall, overnight spend in Victoria suffered a substantial loss of $9.8 billion (-77%) in the nine months ending December 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

How many Australians visit Victoria, where are they from and how much do they spend?

• Victorias Domestic Tourism Performance Infographic year ending December 2020 (PDF 221.02 KB)
• Domestic visitor and expenditure estimates year ending December 2020 (XLSX 6834.21 KB)

Previous releases:

• Domestic visitor and expenditure estimates year ending September 2020 (XLSX 6833.25 KB)
• Domestic visitor and expenditure estimates year ending June 2020 (XLSX 6831.84 KB)
• Domestic visitor and expenditure estimates year ending March 2020 (XLSX 6832.99 KB)
• Domestic visitor and expenditure estimates - year ending December 2019 (XLSX 6778.15 KB)

Visit Tourism Research Australia for a range of interactive dashboards and monthly domestic visitor data.

Next NVS release: April 2021 (TBC)

Where are Victoria's tourism regions, and what do we know about regional visitation?