Useful links

Unfortunately, the SATC is not able to provide secondary or tertiary students with interviews and responses to individual requests for information.

We hope that the list of resources on this page will enable you to gather the information required to complete your research.

  • What are the strategies for growing tourism in South Australia? Strategic Plans
  • How many international travellers visit South Australia, where do they come from and how much do they spend? International Performance
  • How many Australians visit South Australia, where do they come from and how much do they spend? Domestic Performance

Tourism Research Australia (TRA) is a branch within Austrade. TRA Australia's leading provider of quality tourism intelligence across both international and domestic markets.

  • The International Visitor Survey (IVS) is the most comprehensive source of information on international visitors to Australia.
  • The National Visitor Survey (NVS) is the major source of information on the characteristics and travel patterns of domestic tourists within Australia.
  • Tourism forecast reports are produced.

website: tra.gov.au

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is Australia’s national statistical agency, providing trusted official statistics on a wide range of economic, social, population and environmental matters of importance to Australia. The ABS releases monthly visitor arrival reports, including visitor numbers by market.

website: abs.gov.au

Tourism bodies

Tourism Australia is the Australian Government agency responsible for attracting international visitors to Australia and encouraging Australians to travel domestically, both for leisure and business events. 


The organisation is active in around 30 key markets and activities include advertising, PR and media programs, trade shows and industry programs, consumer promotions, online communications and consumer research.

Visit the other State Tourism Organisations (STO) corporate pages here:

South Australia has 12 tourism regions, please use the list below to find out more.

The Tourism Industry Council South Australia (TiCSA) is the peak body for South Australia's tourism industry.

Website: ticsa.com.au

Frequently Asked Questions

The primary sources of information on visitor numbers to South Australia and to South Australia’s tourism regions, published by the South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC) are:

  • the National Visitor Survey (NVS) for domestic visitor figures (travel by Australian residents), and 
  • the International Visitor Survey (IVS) for visits by international visitors to Australia.

These surveys are managed by Tourism Research Australia on behalf of Commonwealth and State Tourism Organisations.

The statistics are collected through interviews with visitors after their trip.

The NVS is an ‘origin based’ survey. Respondents are surveyed on residential fixed-line telephones and mobile phones using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI).

Since January 2005, interviews have been conducted with approximately 120,000 respondents annually.

In 2014, the NVS moved to a dual frame sample methodology. This means one portion of the sample is now interviewed on residential fixed-lines and another on mobile phones. This change has occurred as the “mobile only” population has increased substantially and this trend is set to continue. Latest data indicates that 20% of those aged 18 or more are “mobile only” with the incidence much higher for younger age groups. Until 2014, “mobile only” respondents were outside the scope of the NVS.

The IVS is conducted through Computer Aided Personal Interviews (CAPI) in departure lounges of international airports with short-term (stay of less than 12 months duration) international visitors aged 15 years or older. Since January 2005, interviews are conducted with around 40,000 departing international visitors each year.

Both the IVS and NVS operate continuously throughout the year.

The surveys are comprehensive. For instance, for overnight trips, the NVS includes questions about:

  • The Visitor e.g. gender, age, life-cycle stage, income etc;
  • The Trip e.g. travel party, length of trip, number/places of stopovers, information sources, expenditure, bookings on the internet etc;
  • Each Stopover Visit e.g. for each place a visitor stopped overnight they are asked about transport used, accommodation, length of stay, leisure activities, purpose of visit etc.

The IVS asks, in the main, similar questions to the NVS although some questions such as activities undertaken are asked for the entire trip – rather than for each stopover.

The NVS includes questions about:

  • Overnight Trips – trips involving a stay of one or more nights away from home at a place at least 40km away from home.
  • Day Trips – trips that involve a round trip distance of at least 50km and being away from home for at least 4 hours, but not including an overnight stay away from home. 
  • Routine day trips, such as for commuting, are not included. As day trip visitors return home on the same day, the majority of day trips are likely to be by visitors from within a region or adjoining region, although trips such as same day business trips from other interstate capitals etc. are also included.
  • Outbound Trips – trips to another country by Australian residents.

International visitors are asked about their entire trip in Australia.

Only those 15 years or over are interviewed for the surveys and the resultant visitor estimates are for persons aged 15 or over. Trips by international and domestic visitors of more than 12 months duration are excluded.

Yes. Other key information sources referenced by the SATC include:

Survey of Tourism Accommodation (STA) conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This survey involves a census of accommodation establishments that are ‘in-scope’ for the survey and provides details on capacity (e.g. rooms available), takings from accommodation, employees and room nights sold (used to calculate occupancy rates). It does not provide information about visitors themselves. The survey scope is hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms.

Tourism Satellite Accounts
The development of Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA’s) for Australia and each State and Territory provide estimates of the contribution of the tourism industry to the economy in terms of output, value added and employment. National level accounts have been produced annually and detailed State/Territory Accounts are produced every three years, with State/Territory summary spreadsheets available in other years. 

Regional Tourism Satellite
Accounts follow on from the National Tourism Satellite Accounts. The Regional Satellite Accounts go beyond these state-wide findings to examine the role and contribution of the tourism industry at a regional level. The analysis is underpinned by benchmark industry data sourced from Tourism Research Australia and a modelling framework consistent with that employed in the derivation of the national and state TSA. The contribution of tourism to key economic metrics such as employment and gross regional product is estimated for South Australia tourism regions. 

Useful downloads available below

Frequently Asked Questions

This fact sheet provides information about the sources of the statistics, how data is collected and what information is available