Domestic statistics

Tourism Research Australia has transitioned its data methodology, resulting in a more comprehensive data outcome for our industry.

The National Visitor Survey (NVS), Tourism Research Australia's primary tool for collecting Australian domestic tourism data from 1998 to 2024, faced significant challenges in recent years. Shifts in respondent behaviour, a surge in scam calls, and data breaches made individuals increasingly reluctant to participate in phone interviews. This declining engagement jeopardised the survey's data quality, representativeness, and reliability, while simultaneously driving up costs due to lower response rates. Consequently, the NVS was deemed no longer a feasible long-term data collection solution.

In response to these concerns, the National Visitor Survey (NVS) data collection method was replaced by the Domestic Tourism Statistics collection (DoTS) method, effective January 1, 2025. DoTS uses a hybrid data collection approach, integrating traditional survey methods with large-scale mobile phone mobility data to enhance the efficiency, accuracy, reliability, and geographic detail of domestic tourism insights.

The June 2025 data release under the new DoTS methodology, covering Q1 and Q2 (January to June) of 2025, provides domestic overnight and day trip visitor figures. TRA has ‘back cast’ this data from 2019 to 2024 allowing accurate comparisons with past periods. This ‘back cast’ data is publicly accessible. It is currently available at the state level, without regional or purpose of visit breakdowns, which TRA advises will be available in subsequent releases

Note that since the release of the Q1 DoTS data in June 2025, TRA has made improvements to the back-cast estimates for increased accuracy, which are reflected in the current data release. All historic data should be refreshed using the figures from the latest release to ensure consistency.

For more information visit Tourism Research Australia.

Next domestic data is scheduled for release on 18 December 2025.

Get the latest data on domestic visitation to and within South Australia including visitor expenditure, day trips and overnight stays. The latest report of domestic visitors to/within South Australia is for the year end June 2025.