The latest monthly snapshot from Tourism Research Australia (TRA) has revealed a $17.7 billion loss on domestic overnight spend during June 2020 compared to 2019.
The National Visitors Survey (NVS) has quantified the dire effects of bush fires and COVID-19 on the domestic travel industry this year, showing a 65 per cent drop on overnight spend and a 45 per cent drop on overnight trips.
Nights spent on trip also dropped by 41 per cent to 18.5 million.
According to the data, May improved slightly on April due to easing of lockdown measures and June saw even further improvement but overnight spend still fell 65 per cent to $2.1 billion, creating a loss of $4 billion compared with June 2019.
The more significant drop in spend versus trips and nights was due to the closing of state borders to interstate visitors, who typically stay longer and have a higher trip spend.
TRA data indicates interstate spend averages at two and a half times more than intrastate spend.
Nearly all of Australia’s states and territories have agreed in principle to develop a plan to reopen the country by Christmas.
According to a media release circulated last week from Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Western Australia is the only jurisdiction not to agree to the plan, which would see states and territories use the hotspot concept for travel between jurisdictions.
Featured image credit: iStock.com/Asurobson
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