Solid growth in domestic travel over the year ending June 2015 underscores the burgeoning strength of Australia’s tourism industry and its capacity to provide economic and development opportunities, with domestic travellers spending $73.7 billion, or almost $202 million across Australia every day, according to peak national industry body Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF).

Tourism Research Australia has today released the National Visitor Survey (NVS) results for June quarter 2015, showing a five per cent increase in overnight trips and a four per cent increase in overnight expenditure for the past financial year, alongside a two per cent rise in daytrips and a marginal rise in daytrip spending in the same period.

TTF Chief Executive Margy Osmond said such growth is good news for the Australian economy.

“Australians took more than 83.2 million overnight trips in the past financial year, with almost a third (32 per cent) involving interstate travel,” Ms Osmond said.

“Residents of Western Australia took one million more overnight trips over 2014/15, recording the strongest growth rate (up 14 per cent) in annual terms, followed by the ACT (up 10 per cent) and Queensland (up 10 per cent).

“Visitor nights were up more than six per cent for the year to around 313.4 million – a jump of 18 million nights in the year.

“Overnight expenditure reached $55.4 billion over the financial year, while daytrip expenditure hit $18.3 billion over the same period.

“We must not become complacent; a key strategy is to improve the regional tourism product and increase transport access to these destinations. We need to improve tourism offerings that encourage travellers, both domestic and international, to stay overnight and keep coming back.

“We need to play on our natural strengths and increase the diversity of what Australia has to offer.

“We must continue to find ways to create a sustainable and competitive tourism market to remain a key player on the global stage. International competition is fierce and if we rest on our laurels we will be left behind.”