The power of numbers: Tourism Research Australia data at work in the visitor economy

Tourism is an increasingly data-driven industry. With more information available than ever before, data has become an essential planning and marketing tool. It gives tourism organisations and businesses greater insights into traveller behaviour. With these insights, they can better target customers.

“Before and after” visitor statistics are also a useful way of measuring the success of promotional campaigns.

How does all this look in practice? We spoke to 3 organisations about their use of data from Tourism Research Australia (TRA). TRA, a part of Austrade, is the official provider of Australia’s tourism statistics.

An essential toolkit for Tourism Australia

How effectively has Tourism Australia’s ‘Ruby the Roo’ mascot attracted overseas travellers to Australia? TRA’s International Visitor Survey (IVS) is central to how Tourism Australia measures its impact in its top 15 and other markets. Through the IVS, Tourism Australia can gauge the performance of its flagship ‘Come and Say G’day’ campaign fronted by computer-generated kangaroo Ruby.

‘We can track not just when someone has chosen to come to Australia,’ says Rob Harding-Smith, Tourism Australia’s General Manager of Strategy. ‘We can also track how they’re spending on their way over and how they spend within Australia.

‘Regional dispersal is one of our key objectives, and there is no other dataset that can track international visitors’ economic expenditure across different states and regions like the IVS. It’s marvellous how it can, say, track an American visitor to a farm gate in South Australia.’

Such detailed figures help Tourism Australia and partners understand where to best direct resources.

For example, says Harding-Smith, expenditure by travellers from South Korea in 2024 was over 140% of pre-pandemic levels. However, most of that was to eastern states. This not only makes clear the opportunities for growing South Korean travel to those states. It also raises the question of how to encourage it in other Australian regions.

In its 2024 Future of Distribution report, Tourism Australia looked at post-pandemic changes in traveller behaviour caused by online booking and other technology. Qualitative IVS survey data was invaluable in assessing this.

Tourism Australia is responsible for promoting Australia to international business, as well as leisure travellers. So, it’s a keen user of the business events data that TRA launched in 2024.

Harding-Smith welcomes other recent TRA advances, such as mobility data (from mobile phones) and the LIVE Framework, which includes more detail on consumer sentiment.

‘Tourism’s impact is so much more than a dollar figure,’ he says. ‘There’s the social impact. There’s the soft power of Australia exerting itself, the cultural experience of people having a good time when they’re here and taking that back home. I think the LIVE Framework does a really good job of starting to show the broader worth of tourism.’

TRA data helps the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra measure its performance and set longer-term goals. Image: Tourism Australia.

Giving the National Portrait Gallery a bigger picture

A wall planner and hand-drawn flowcharts loom large in Tristan Hoffmeister’s office at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.

As Director of Access and Learning, and part of the executive team, Hoffmeister oversees key performance indicators (KPIs). He also works on the longer-term strategic plan. TRA data is useful for both.

Amid major drawcards like Parliament House and the Australian War Memorial, the Portrait Gallery is a smaller gem. It has a national remit, but few people come to Canberra to visit it alone. That makes it vital to monitor wider visitor trends.

For yearly KPIs, ‘we have to give the board the context of the environment we’re working in,’ says Hoffmeister. ‘If our visitor numbers are up or down, overall figures for Canberra can help explain our performance.’

On the exhibition floor, the gallery is already making its collections more diverse and inclusive to increase its appeal. Strategically, it also needs to know the visitor market to win more of it. What types of visitors are travelling to Canberra, a busy cultural-tourism destination? What experiences are they seeking? How can the Portrait Gallery ‘be a part of the itinerary’?

With just over 50 staff, the Portrait Gallery often relies on external information in its planning, says Hoffmeister. Using TRA survey data has helped the gallery:

• better understand its place in the international, national and local visitor economy
• identify opportunities for future growth.

A recent focus on family groups, for example, has reaped rewards for the Portrait Gallery.

Family visitors were already one of the gallery’s core audiences, alongside locals and school groups. By highlighting what these groups look for in attractions, the TRA data helped the gallery better sell itself to this audience. Being an accessible gallery, having free options and a good café are all important things to highlight, Hoffmeister explains.

‘Using the data strategically, and looking at the programs that we offer, we’ve managed to grow our family participation by 20% in the last year,’ Hoffmeister says.

He’s impressed by the growing sophistication of TRA and other tourism data. He appreciates growing segmentation by sector and insights into visitor behaviour.

‘The data helps us build confidence with the board,’ he says. ‘They want to know what’s happening around town, and further. They want to be sure we’re paying attention to wider trends and being agile enough to respond.’

Easy, shareable content from Whitsundays figures

Tourism Whitsundays has often used visitor numbers from TRA in media releases to show how healthy the local tourism market is. Recently, this destination marketing body posted visitor numbers and spend on social media.

CEO Tim Booth says it’s common for regional tourism organisations to use TRA data in media releases. But, says Public Relations and Social Media Manager Rosanagh Gallivan, posting on LinkedIn creates an extra opportunity.

It’s a chance to add eye-catching infographics and increase readers’ engagement with the figures. ‘It isn’t anything radical,’ Gallivan admits. However, 20 minutes spent in design can give a social media post real impact.

One in 3 jobs is in tourism in this Queensland destination. So, promoting the latest quarterly domestic and international results from TRA is an easy way to generate local news.

It also gives individual tourism operators ‘a holistic perspective’ of regional trends, says Booth. Suppose, for example, travellers are taking fewer tourism experiences, but the hospitality industry is booming. Hard data gives local operators an understanding of what’s happening beyond their own business.

Learn more

TRA data extends well beyond visitor numbers and tourism jobs figures, on a national, state and regional level.

TRA also produces industry forecasts, monitors investment and analyses various market sectors such as accessible tourism and First Nations tourism.

Explore the Tourism Research Australia website to see what’s on offer.

TRA Online gives access to even more detailed tourism statistics for paying subscribers. More information is available on the TRA website about TRA Online packages.