Tourism 2020 focused on improving the industry’s performance and competitiveness by pursuing new opportunities for growth and addressing supply-side factors.

The Tourism 2020 goal was to achieve more than $115 billion in overnight spend by 2020 (up from $70 billion in 2009).

Tourism Australia shared this goal with the Australian tourism industry and federal, state and territory governments in an effort to maximise tourism’s economic contribution to the Australian people.

Tourism 2020 focused on improving the industry’s performance by pursuing opportunities to increase consumer spending and address supply-side factors. The strategy was being implemented in three phases and we also began planning for the years beyond 2020, working with Austrade and state and territory governments as part of an industry-led committee, up until the coronavirus pandemic.

Outcomes of Tourism 2020

We were on track to achieve our goal of more than A$115 billion in overnight spend by 2020. At 30 March 2018, overnight visitor expenditure reached $107.4 billion, up 6 per cent on the previous year. Before the pandemic, forecasts indicated that overnight visitor spend would reach $131 billion by 2020/21.

A competitive aviation environment was essential to achieving the Tourism 2020 goal. When the strategy was launched in 2011, we set a target of between 40 per cent and 50 per cent growth in international aviation capacity, representing an increase of between 7 million and 8 million seats. There has been solid growth over the past seven years, with 9.3 million seats added by the end of December 2017.

Increased investment in quality accommodation is also a significant factor in achieving the Tourism 2020 goal. The Australian tourism industry made solid progress in this area, particularly during the past three years, and is on track to achieve the target of adding between 6,000 and 20,000 new rooms by 2020.

Australian Government priorities

Tourism ministers from the Australian and State and Territory Governments identified four policy priorities under Tourism 2020:

• encourage high-quality tourism experiences, including Indigenous tourism
• limit the tax, red tape and other regulatory burden industry faces
• undertake coordinated and effective marketing campaigns to drive demand
• work with industry to support the development of tourism infrastructure that can drive demand.

The Austrade website hosts various publications and research that outlines the key actions needed to assist industry reach its potential.