Visitors from Australia

1. Executive summary 2022

In 2022 Australia was Scotland’s twelfth largest international source market measured by number of visits. It was seventh by expenditure and fifth by number of nights.

In 2022 Australian visitors accounted for 3% of all overseas visits to Scotland and 3% of all overseas spend in Scotland.

2022 saw a lower return versus pre-pandemic levels for both visits and spend. Australian borders remained closed for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic. The borders only opened again in February 2022.

During this time Australians may have learned to favour domestic tourism, impacting their wider travel in 2022.

View more graphs and charts on tourismobservatory.scot. 

Source: IPS, 2022

2. Scotland Visitor Survey 2023

We are currently conducting a visitor survey across Scotland. We are speaking to overnight visitors on the ground in Scotland and then will follow up on their return home so that we get a full picture of their visitor experience.

As part of this, we will be speaking to a sample of our Australian visitors. The research will be in field until the end of the year and results will be available in 2024.

The research will not gather volume of visitors which is collected via the IPS but will look at their motivations for visiting, their experiences and how they have rated aspects of their trip.

4. Official statistics and partners

The International Passenger Survey (IPS) is a continuous survey carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It covers all major, air, sea and tunnel ports.

The survey provides information on the numbers and types of visits made by people travelling to and from the UK. Anonymous face-to-face interviews are undertaken with a sample of passengers entering and leaving the UK.

Find out more on the survey methodology on the ONS website.

Read further ONS publications.

Read how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted on the IPS data collection.