Victoria's cultural visitation
Visitors who engage in cultural activities play a vital role in boosting the Victorian economy and enhancing the state's reputation as a vibrant creative hub. This page explores insights on Victorian cultural visitation drawn from Tourism Research Australia data.
Cultural Visitation
Cultural visitors are defined as domestic or international visitors who attended one or more of the following cultural experiences or activities while on their trip:
- attended theatre, concerts or other performing arts
- visited museums or art galleries
- visited art/craft workshops/studios
- attended festivals/fairs or cultural events
- visited history, heritage building sites or monuments
- experienced First Peoples art/craft and cultural displays, events or performances or toured a First Peoples site.
Cultural Visitation to Victoria - overview
In year ending December 2024 there were 11.5 million total cultural visitors to Victoria1.
The below graph demonstrates that Victoria has performed well when compared to other states2 with a strong rate of recovery of cultural visitors since 2019. *
The below graph demonstrates that cultural visitors comprise 13% of total international and domestic visitors to Victoria.
The share of Victorian cultural visitors compares to the share of tourist visitors, attending theme parks, wildlife parks, zoos, aquariums, markets, tourist trains, wineries and breweries (14%).
Holiday travellers are more likely to undertake cultural activities than business travellers with the data revealing that 73% of Victorian international holiday travellers undertook cultural activities while only 33% of business travellers did.
The graph below illustrates the types of cultural visitors to Victoria by: domestic day visitors, domestic overnight visitors and international visitors. The type of visitor split is also available across three charts which show: cultural visitors to Victoria, cultural visitors to regional Victoria, and all visitors to Victoria. *
What do cultural visitors see and experience during their trip?
The graph below shows which categories of creative experience are most popular with cultural visitors to the state. In the year ending December 2024, 45% of all cultural visitors to the state visited museums and galleries.
By selecting the activity, you can see the category of visitor – for example the graph below reveals that 40% of the cultural visitors who experience First Peoples cultural activities on their trip are international overnight visitors.
Key markets
The graph below represents the source of cultural visitation to Victoria: within Victoria, interstate and international.* The highest number of cultural visitation overall comes from within Victoria. Currently the largest number of international overnight cultural visitors to Victoria come from China.3
The graph below shows the source markets of international overnight cultural visitors to Victoria over time. The graph shows that China currently has the highest number of cultural visitors however the total number remains below 2019 levels.* The graph can reveal possible new or growing markets for Victoria.
Cultural visitation expenditure
The below chart reveals in the year ending December 2024 total visitors to/within Victoria who engaged in cultural experiences on their trip (including First Peoples cultural activities) spent an estimated $13.2 billion, which represents 32.9% of total tourism expenditure in the state.
The graph below shows expenditure of cultural visitors to and within Victoria over time.* For the year ending December 2024, international overnight visitors spent more despite being a smaller component of the overall cultural visitation mix.
For more information please see:
Tourism and Events Research and Insights
*Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international travel, the years ending March 2020 to year ending September 2023 (inclusive) only include domestic data. The Tourism Research Australia’s International Visitor Survey (IVS) methodology produces international visitation estimates using a combination of airport interviews and immigration data taken from visa applications/passports, previous travel records and sampled incoming passenger cards. During the pandemic international border restrictions interviewing was limited. Data for country, main reason for visit and state stopover were valid at the aggregated level, however details below these levels (such as information on what visitors did or saw during their visit) were not to be used therefore in many graphs on this page do not include international visitation figures.
For more detail go to International Visitor Survey (IVS) methodology | Tourism Research Australia
1 Figures include both domestic daytrip and domestic overnight visitors who undertook cultural activities in Victoria. Due to data limitations, figures for international overnight visitors reflects international visitors who visited Victoria and undertook cultural activities on their trip within Australia (which could have been taken place in another state or territory).
2 Whole numbers for Victorian cultural visitors for state and territory comparisons, will differ slightly from standalone Victorian data due to differences in data collection.
3 Whole numbers for Victorian cultural visitors for will differ slightly from standalone Victorian data due to differences in data collection from international markets.