Overseas visitors spending above pre-COVID levels

Figures from Destination New South Wales show spending by international visitors has surpassed pre-pandemic levels.

Transcript

00:00This report from Destination NSW looked at data from the year ending in June 2024.

00:09What it's found is that international visitors are the strongest in NSW compared to any other

00:16state and territory in the country.

00:20But what it's also found quite interestingly is that the tourism sector in general has

00:24seen an estimated value of close to $53 billion in the last year alone.

00:30Now a lot of that is made up from international visitation.

00:33We've seen quite strong numbers hailing from New Zealand, from China, as well as the United

00:40States.

00:41The domestic figures according to this report look also quite strong.

00:44We've seen more than 100 million visitors from both overseas and domestically travel

00:49to New South Wales last year for their tourism ventures.

00:54We're also looking quite good in New South Wales post-pandemic in terms of our recovery

00:58in the tourism industry.

01:00In fact, we've seen more than 4 million international visitors come to New South Wales in the last

01:07year alone, which is about more than a 30% increase compared to 2019.

01:12Now what that means is that we're seeing an increase of international visitors more than

01:18what we saw pre-pandemic levels.

01:21It's quite busy here at this particular park in Sydney.

01:24We've got a stunning view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and this is a tourism hotspot.

01:27In fact, it's bustling right now with a lot of tourists coming off in the bus loads to

01:32check out the view.

01:34I've managed to catch up with a few of them, but a couple of locals that I spoke to first

01:37and foremost reacting to the report today, they found that in some ways they were surprised

01:44that international visitation for New South Wales had gone back to pre-pandemic, if not

01:50better, levels.

01:51But in some instances, they could also understand that given the amount of tourists that we're

01:56seeing not only across New South Wales, but in Sydney.

02:00I think the pandemic really made people realise how close off we can be.

02:04So I think a lot of people took the opportunity to get as far away and travel as much as possible.

02:08I think there's a lot more going on comparatively to like Melbourne, for example, a lot more

02:13diversity between food, people, industries.

02:16I'm surprised to hear that it's back to previous levels.

02:19I think it's still a bit down.

02:22Obviously, I'd like to see it grow good for the cafes and small businesses.

02:27So this report from Destination New South Wales finding that New South Wales is the

02:31most popular for international visitors out of the entire country and Sydney, the most

02:36popular capital city compared to all the other cities in the country as well.

02:40But by the sounds of it, it sounds like Sydney and New South Wales, although we're seeing

02:46those numbers looking quite strong and true and promising for the tourism industry.

02:50It looks like we're hungry for more.