Tourism research and insights

Key results for the Mornington Peninsula for January 1 2024 to December 31 2024

The Mornington Peninsula tourism region received 7.9 million visitors in 2024. This figure is down slightly by 1% on the 8 million visitors received in 2023

Breakdown of the 7.9 million visitors

• 5.7 million visitors (73%) were daytrip visitors from within Australia. This is ↓ 5% on 2023
  2.1 million visitors (26%) were overnight visitors from within Australia. This is ↑ 9% on 2023
• 59,000 visitors (1%) were overnight visitors from overseas. This is ↑ 47% on 2023
  The total amount spent by visitors was $1.8 billion in the region (Note: is the first time since COVID the figure includes international visitor spend)
• Spend by daytrip visitors from within Australia was down on 2023 by 5% to $667 million (on average, this was $116 per visitor)
• Spend by overnight visitors from within Australia increased on 2023 from $1.06 billion to $1.08 billion
  • Interstate overnight visitors spent $158 million
  • Intrastate overnight visitors spent $925 million
• Spend by overnight international visitors has increased on 2019 from $78 million to $84 million
• On average international overnight visitors spent $1,417 per person

Compared to other Victorian regions (excluding Melbourne), the Mornington Peninsula ranks

#1 in domestic daytrip visitors
#6 in domestic overnight visitors
#3 in international overnight visitors
#2 in spend by domestic daytrippers
#4 in spend domestic overnight visitors
#6 in spend by international overnight visitors
#5 in number of nights stayed by domestic visitors
#6 in number of nights stayed by international visitors

NB: figures displayed are for the Mornington Peninsula tourism region which includes both the Mornington Peninsula and Frankston local government areas.

View more tourism statistics here for the Mornington Peninsula or other regions within Victoria via the Victorian Tourism and Events website.

Tourism Research Australia – Key findings for the year ending June 30, 2024:

• The total number of tourism-related businesses in the region was 3,903 and 47% did not employ any staff.
• Of the tourism-related businesses that employ staff; 57% were micro businesses employing 1-4 people and 34% were small businesses employing 5-19 people. So that means we have 90%+ of tourism related businesses who employ staff, employing between 1-19 people.
• There has been a decrease in the number of micro (86 or 7%) and small (38 or 5%) tourism related businesses in 2024 when compared to 2023.
• The number of medium businesses has increased by 27% (25) on 2023. Medium sized businesses employ between 20 to 199 people.
• The region increased to having 7 large tourism related businesses that employ 200+ people, a minor increase of 2 on 2023.
• Overall, there has been a decrease (107 or 5%) in the number of businesses employing staff and a slight increase (5 or less than 1%) in the number of businesses not employing staff since June 20 2023.
• All sizes of business have had an increase since June 30 2020; micro (by 45 or 4%), small (by56 or 9%), medium (by7 or 4%), large (by 3 or 75%).

Source: Tourism Research Australia Tourism businesses | Tourism Research Australia

Investing in tourism

Mornington Peninsula Economic Summary: Dive into detailed economic insights with interactive data on employment, industry performance, and economic indicators specific to the Mornington Peninsula, designed to inform business decisions and strategy development.

Tourism Research Australia has created twelve profiles that describe who visitors are and what they want to do. Use these if you know your target market and want to better understand their travel preferences.

Ten profiles have also been created based around popular visitor activities or destinations. Use these if you want to understand what your new target market could be, based on what activities your destination currently offers.

Download them here.

Tourism Research Australia has developed country profiles to provide valuable information about Australia’s inbound tourism markets. These profiles are designed to help Government, industry, operators, peak bodies and researchers better understand the international visitor economy, including specific visitor markets.

The country profiles highlight key markets across Asia. Data includes insights on:

• the purpose of visits
• the demographic makeup of visitors from that country
• forecast changes in visits to Australia
• visitor activities and spend
• how international markets rate their trip to Australia, and more.

Download them here.

• Victoria Tourism and Events– Information for Victoria’s tourism industry
• Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) The Positive Impact of Business Events Report
• Tourism Research Australia– Australia’s leading provider of quality tourism intelligence across both international and domestic markets.
• First Peoples tourism in Victoria
• Accessible tourism
• Cycle tourism