Australian Regional Tourism

In partnership with State and Territory tourism organisations, ART aims to be a unified industry voice for regional tourism advocacy, enabling a collaborative approach to industry development and shared challenges.

In 2025, regional Australia generated $74.6 billion in annual visitor spend, accounting for 39% of the total, while capital cities and the Gold Coast contributed $117.7 billion (61%).

Despite hosting 58% of domestic overnight trips, regional areas attracted only 24% of international visitor stopovers, compared to 76% in capital cities.

There are approximately 108,000 tourism-related businesses in regional Australia, and tourism supports around 6.7% of all jobs, which is more than double the share in capital cities (Tourism Research Australia).

Tourism is vital to many regional communities around Australia, and it is important that we continue to advocate for the success of the industry.

CATCH-UP ON THE LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS

BLOG

ART Convention 2026 Leadership Series: Can you grow a visitor economy without protecting what people come to see?

Elissa Keenan on why protecting a destination and growing its visitor economy are increasingly the same job Reefs and rainforests. Wildlife and waterways. National parks,…

Bridging the Gap: Tourism, Agriculture and Community

In this episode of the Tourism Hub Podcast, host Despina Karatzias is on location at the 2025 ART Conference, one of Australia’s most important gatherings…

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AI search and the regional visitor economy: a measurement and optimisation playbook for destinations and operators

WEBINAR

AI search and the regional visitor economy: a measurement and optimisation playbook for destinations and operators

In this session we’ll look at how traveller behavior is changing with AI, and dive into a model to track your region or business within…

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