- Tourism Australia released the Tourism 2035 strategic plan to grow high-yield traveller spend to $61-$69bn by 2035
- International visitors contributed $57bn in overnight spend, with $33bn from high-yield travellers
- Tourism supports more than 360,000 businesses and 720,000 jobs across urban and regional Australia
- Four immediate priorities include marketing to AI systems, showcasing experience breadth, capitalising on major events, and defining luxury positioning
- Ten global factors including Asian market growth, event potential, and sustainable travel will shape future demand
Tourism Australia has released its new 10-year strategic Tourism 2035 plan, aiming to create future demand and competitiveness for Australia as a destination internationally and supporting the nation’s tourism sector.
The strategy aims to grow total overnight high-yield traveller spend to between $61 and $69bn by 2035, helping to boost the economic contribution of Australia’s second-largest export sector.
The latest figures show international visitors contributed $57bn in total overnight spend in the past year, of which $33bn was generated by Tourism Australia’s strategic targeting of high-yield travellers in their marketing. International visitation also contributed to more than 360,000 tourism businesses and over 720,000 jobs, providing measurable benefits for urban and regional Australia.
Ten Global Trends Countered
The roadmap targets ten shifting global trends:
- Intensifying Competition for High-Yield Travellers: Fiercer global rivalry to capture the world’s highest-spending premium visitors.
- The Asian Century (Rising Outbound Demand): Explosive, dominant growth originating from core Asian source markets.
- Evolving Booking and Travel Behaviours: Rapidly shifting consumer habits regarding how itineraries are researched and purchased.
- Geopolitical Instability and Shocks: Sudden disruptions to global travel patterns caused by international political friction.
- Climate-Related Challenges and Risks: The direct threat and macro impact of volatile weather on destination readiness.
- Surging Demand for Sustainable Travel: Conscious consumer preferences shifting heavily toward low-impact, eco-friendly journeys.
- Deepening Interest in Nature-Based Luxury: High-value travellers opting for raw, authentic, and remote outdoor experiences over traditional luxury.
- The Rise of Autonomous AI Discovery: Machine-learning systems and LLMs replacing traditional human search engines for travel planning.
- Fluctuating Future Aviation Capacity: Structural shifts in airline routing, long-haul economics, and seat availability.
- Macroeconomic Pressures on Discretionary Spend: Global inflation and cost-of-living fluctuations affecting consumer travel budgets.
”A massive boost in overnight spending’
The 10-year strategic roadmap, Tourism 2035, targets a massive boost in overnight spending from high-yield international travellers to between A$61 billion and A$69 billion by 2035 and follows a trend of shifting the focus away from merely chasing raw visitor volume toward extracting maximum value. It prioritises travelllers who stay longer, spend more, and explore regional areas beyond primary gateway cities.
The agency will anchor its efforts on four critical areas over the next three years to capture early momentum:
- Marketing to Humans and Machines: Adapting promotional frameworks to engage both traditional consumers and AI-driven search or recommendation discovery engines.
- Expanding Tourism Identity: Diversifying global perceptions of Australia past its iconic coastal landmarks to heavily promote its food, wine, and deep cultural experiences.
- Leveraging Major Events: Capitalizing on the global spotlight of incoming massive sporting events, leading up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, to draw high-value itineraries.
- Elevating Luxury Tourism: Shifting luxury positioning toward a distinctively Australian, nature-based, and rare-experience luxury standard.
Tourism Australia Managing Director, Robin Mack, shared: “At a time when global competition has never been fiercer, Tourism 2035 has identified 10 key global factors influencing future demand for the tourism offering. “This strategy sets an ambitious course to create and convert demand into high-value visitation to Australia by addressing factors influencing traveller choice, through harnessing technology and fostering partnerships and collaboration across the tourism sector,” Mr Mack shared. “Our vision is for Australia to be the first destination every traveller dreams of, and the one they ultimately choose. The goal is for Australia to double the expenditure generated by high-yield travellers to as much as $69bn by 2035.”
“The Asian Century, the future of flight, rise in travel for good, the massive potential of major events and breadth of experiences driving choice are five of the factors Australian tourism will encounter over the next decade. Tourism Australia’s efforts will be squarely focused on creating and converting demand for travel to Australia by positioning our destination offering in the best way possible. Tourism 2035 provides our industry with insight on what to be prepared for and where the opportunities lie.”
“A flourishing tourism sector delivers benefits far beyond economic impact. It creates jobs in both urban and regional areas, supports businesses large and small, helps to protect our natural and cultural assets and builds resilient communities across the nation. Over the next three years, Tourism Australia will focus its marketing and distribution efforts on four immediate priorities that respond to major factors likely to contribute to growth: marketing to humans and machines, showcasing the breadth of Australian experiences, capitalising on the major events runway including the Olympics, and defining a distinctive luxury positioning for Australia. These four priorities take into consideration the 10 global factors influencing future travel demand, including high yield competition, the Asian Century, breadth driving choice, the potential of major events, the future of flight, volatility, multiple paths to purchase, attention fragmentation, travel for good, and natural desire.
