Victoria is bringing in almost as many tourism dollars as prepandemic levels, but visitors are still lagging in recovery

New data shows tourism generated $31.5 billion for Victoria in the year to December 2022, however visitors are still only at 83 per cent of the pre-pandemic result. 

National and International Visitor Survey Data showed that regional Victoria continues to lead the state’s recovery with domestic overnight spend of $10.4 billion for the year to December 2022, 39 per cent higher than in December 2019. 

VTIC Chief Executive Officer Felicia Mariani said Victoria’s recovery continued at pace however further investment was essential to regain lost market share and draw workers back to the sector. “The fact we are now sitting $1 billion below where we were in the pre-pandemic result of December 2019 is a testament to the great progress we have made in our recovery. 

“We always said recovery of Victoria’s visitor economy was likely to be a three-to-four-year process – but in just over two years we are almost back to where we were at in 2019. Victoria is in an excellent position to reach the Victorian Government target of $35 billion in annual expenditure by 2024. “What the industry needs now are initiatives and investment into training and attracting staff back into the sector to increase capacity and service the extra demand.” 

Last week, the Victoria Tourism Industry Council released its pre-budget submission for the 2023-24 Victorian Budget, calling for investments to drive and sustain growth in Victoria’s visitor economy. 

It listed four priority areas for investment: Industry Strengthening; Enabling Tourism Infrastructure; Making the most of our marketing spend to drive destination demand; Preparing for and delivering on the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games. 

VTIC called for commitments that will bolster Victoria against its competitors, with Queensland still comfortably the second highest generator of total tourism spend, and Victoria in third place. 

VTIC Chief Executive Officer Felicia Mariani said it was more important than ever to back Victoria’s visitor economy as it works to regain lost market share. 

“In the year ending September 2020, Queensland overtook Victoria to take over second place in market share and total tourism spend. While our pace of recovery is faster than other states, Victoria has more lost territory to recover to claim back that position. 

Ms Mariani added that the next performance data will likely be bolstered by the bumper season of events in the past quarter.

 Next quarter we expect to see a huge impact on performance data from the massive events season we have enjoyed, bookended by global mega events the Australian Open in January and finishing with the Grand Prix in March. 

Now we need to keep up the momentum and build on those huge successes.” VTIC’s state budget submission is available here. 

*Source: Felicia Mariani, VTIC Chief Executive, 0428 244 857