Destination Australia 2025 – We are the Australian tourism industry

Media release

Around 1,000 members of the tourism industry have taken part in Tourism Australia’s annual Destination Australia conference, at the International Convention Centre Sydney, to hear about the future evolution and growth of the tourism sector.

The theme for this year’s conference was ‘We are the Australian tourism industry’, with speakers across the day highlight the importance of the sector which is expected to be worth $220 billion before the end of the decade.

Tourism Australia Managing Director, Phillipa Harrison, said after many challenging years the tourism industry was now firmly focused on the future and, with Australia remaining a highly desirable destination for international travellers, the future outlook looks bright.

“In the past year we have welcomed more than eight million visitors for the first time in five years with the number of arrivals in 2024 around 15 per cent greater than 2023. Total visitor expenditure also grew to a record $48.8 billion,” Ms Harrison said.

“As an island nation aviation capacity is critical to our industry and inbound seat capacity is now back, reaching record levels last year. We are now welcoming almost 1,900 flights a week from 70 different ports to 13 destinations around Australia.”

“The recent Tourism Investment Monitor shows a vote of confidence in our industry with the investment pipeline reaching a record high with $63.4 billion across 346 projects to prepare Australia’s visitor economy for the future.”

Tourism Australia also confirmed it will soon officially begin operating in Vietnam to help drive trade engagement with the fast growing market as it looks at the 10 years of opportunity ahead for the tourism industry.

The Minister for Trade and Tourism, Don Farrell, also addressed the conference along with leaders of the Australian tourism industry, marketing and a deep dive on the emerging opportunity for agritourism with a growing interest from international travellers.