Tourism

More people holiday in New South Wales (NSW) than anywhere else in Australia.

About 36 per cent of all tourists to Australia come to NSW. Around 90 per cent of our tourists visit from somewhere else in Australia, with 10 per cent arriving from overseas.

Something for everyone

Tourists come here for all sorts of reasons - our warm climate, our stunning natural wonders, our vibrant art and entertainment culture, and our sumptuous eating and shopping.

Holidays mean business

Visitors to NSW generate A$28.2 billion in tourism consumption every year.

Our tourism industry accounts for more than 198,000 businesses, and directly employs 162,500 people across the State - which is nearly five per cent of all jobs in NSW.

In the year ending December 2009, around 22.6 million Australians stayed overnight in NSW, according to the National Visitor Survey. Our State had 34.2 per cent of all domestic visitors and 30 per cent of visitors staying overnight.

2009 saw 2.7 million international overnight visitors come to NSW - more than half of all international visitors to Australia.

Planning for the future

NSW has set a new strategy to support our commitment of an extra $A40 million to the tourism sector. We’ve set a target of attracting $A20 million worth of investment to tourism programs from industry, and increase direct visitor spending from $A17.4 billion in 2007 to $A19.2 billion in 2016.

Overall, our strategy sets a target of 160.6 million visitor nights by 2016, an increase of 25.5 million from the original target.

Success stories

Some NSW tourism success stories include:

Jamberoo Action Park, which is NSW’s biggest theme park attracting close to 400,000 people every year. More than 20 per cent of Jamberoo’s guests stay overnight in accommodation spread more than 60 kilometres along the NSW South Coast from Wollongong to Gerroa.
Taronga Zoo, a fixture in Sydney for over 90 years. The new A$55 million Great Southern Oceans precinct required some 800 truckloads of concrete, 25 tonnes of structural steels, and 2,000 truckloads of soil.
Parkes Elvis Festival, with more than 7,000 fans descending on the town of Parkes in the Central West each January to celebrate the King’s birthday. Each year the festival’s 80 events, spread over five days, inject around A$3.6 million into the town.