8602.0 - Tourism Newsletter, Aug 2007  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 03/09/2007  First Issue
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Tourism Statistics | news

Feature article - domestic visitor activity per capita

Trips and visitor nights per capita both give an indication of the direction of domestic consumer behaviour at the individual level.
Graph: Domestic Visitor Activity Per Capita
Source: These measures have been derived by the ABS using National Visitor Survey data with number of trips statistics as they appear in table 17 of the Tourism Satellite Account . Australian National Accounts 2005-06 (ABS Cat. No. 5249.0). Resident population estimates are from Australian Demographic Statistics September 2006 (ABS Cat. No. 3101.0). Notes: 1998-99 = 100.

The National Visitor Survey (NVS, produced by Tourism Research Australia) provides detailed information about the characteristics and travel behaviour of Australian residents, including the total number of visitor nights. The Tourism Satellite Account (ATSA, produced by the ABS) presents the number of domestic trips (i.e. day trips and overnight trips) undertaken by Australian residents (these estimates also come from the trip data collected by the NVS). However taken at face value these are absolute measures of visitor activity and do not take into account other factors that might be influencing movements.

Indexing the number of domestic trips and total nights emphasises movements or change in these measures of domestic visitor activity. Similarly, calculating per capita estimates gives an indication of movements relative to the Australian population. In this case resident population as at June in the year of the visitor activity has been used to calculate per capita estimates.

As can be seen in the graph, between 1998-99 and 2005-06, domestic visitor activity, as measured by visitor nights, overnight trips and day trips per capita has decreased (around 10% for overnight trips per capita, 13% for visitor nights per capita and about 25% for day trips per capita).

(This is based on an extract from the upcoming publication 'Economic Performance Indicators of Australia's Tourism Industry')