NSW LONG-TERM ARRIVALS EXCEED PRE-PANDEMIC LEVELS

New Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data shows long-term visitor arrivals to NSW in November 2022 have exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

For visitors arriving in NSW for a long-term trip (one year or more):There were 17,040 arrivals, an increase of 14,830 compared with the corresponding month of the previous year.
The number of trips for November 2022 was 17.8 per cent higher than pre-COVID levels in November 2019.

The results are welcome news for the NSW visitor economy, with ABS data showing there were 604,200 tourism jobs in the September quarter of 2022. This was 18,600 (3.2 per cent) more jobs compared to June quarter 2022 and 223,500 (58.7 per cent) more jobs than September quarter 2021. Tourism jobs peaked at 758,000 in December quarter 2019 and are at their highest level (604,200) since the pandemic started.

Short-term visitor arrivals to Australia reached 500,000 in November 2022. NSW recorded 181,040 short-term visitor arrivals, an increase of 170,830 compared with the corresponding month of the previous year.

The three leading source countries for NSW were:

• New Zealand (26,740 trips)
• United States (26,400)
• United Kingdom (19,470).

*Source: Destination NSW