The Australian population (around 20million people) is relatively young and increasingly multi-cultural although many people are of British or Irish descent. Around 70% of the population are internet users. The economy has been growing steadily at an average rate of around 3% per annum.

The Australian outbound market

In comparison to many of world’s tourism markets, Australia is relatively small, but Australians travel widely and spend well.  Australia is ranked 17^th in the world in terms of expenditure on outbound travel and there has been a trend of steady growth in recent years. Key destinations are New Zealand, South East Asia, the UK and the USA.  

Due to the distance involved, long-haul trips can last for anything between 2 weeks to over 2 months and often include multiple destinations. Many holiday trips are driven by visiting friends and relatives (VFR) and this is a particular feature of visits to the UK. Therefore private accommodation (staying with friends or family) is often used. Touring around, beaches and visiting cultural/historic sites are key holiday activities.

Scotland’s visitors

Amongst Scotland’s international markets, Australia is ranked 9^th in terms of total visits and spend.  Around a third to just under a half of visits to Scotland in recent years have been for the reason of visiting friends and family.   

Marketing Activities

VisitScotland works closely in partnership with VisitBritain to promote Scotland in the Australian market.  Past activities have included joint PR and promotions and marketing support for the 2005 visit of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo to Sydney.  We work with VisitBritain to arrange press trips and to ensure the inclusion of effective and inspiring Scotland content in their consumer website, e-communications programmes and campaigns.  In 2008, we will collaborate on Destination Britain, a major travel trade event which is usually well attended by the Australian travel trade.

Australians with Scottish ancestry are targeted in various ways including a quarterly e-communications programme and the specialist website www.AncestralScotland.com.  VisitScotland recently extended its Scots Agent destination specialist programme to the travel trade in Australia & New Zealand and is working to grow the membership in these countries.  

Some quick facts and insights on this market are available to download. Australia PDF document 6kb

To find out about our marketing activities in Australia and how you can become involved, please visit our Marketing Opportunities section.

Useful links:

Profiles of the Australian market are also available from VisitBritain and the European Travel Commission.