ACCI report exposes Australia’s lack of ambition for tourism
Media Release: 30 June 2026
Australia’s national tourism strategy requires a major overhaul to reflect the true ambition of the industry, a new Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) report finds.
The report, From THRIVE 2030 to the Next National Strategy, finds that while the government’s THRIVE 2030 strategy supported the sector’s post-pandemic recovery, it now lacks the ambition and structure required to continue driving long-term growth.
Visitor expenditure reached $214 billion in 2024 (including long-stay international students), putting Australia on track to exceed the $230 billion target well before 2030 without any additional interventions.
Executive Chair of Australian Chamber – Tourism, John Hart, said the sector’s strong performance presented an opportunity to set a more ambitious strategy.
“Tourism rebounded from the COVID pandemic faster and stronger than expected, which presents an opportunity to create a more ambitious national tourism strategy that supports the next phase of growth,” Mr Hart said.
“Tourism contributes more than $80 billion of total GDP, employing more than one million people, and sustaining more than 300,000 businesses. It is also the dominant employer and primary economic driver in many rural and remote regions.”
Mr Hart said the decision earlier this year to change how visitor expenditure is measured, without lifting the headline target, demonstrates the need for a new strategy.
“Despite the strong growth and value in the visitor economy, the strategy has failed to embrace the industry’s ambition and has instead fiddled at the edges with how it reports data,” he said.
The report also found the national strategy was falling behind international competitors and state and territory governments in levels of ambition.
ACCI Chief Executive Officer Andrew McKellar said: “Australia is competing against countries with longer planning horizons, stronger governance and better integration across aviation, visas, workforce and investment. Our national tourism strategy must catch up.”
“Tourism operators in Australia can see the opportunity in front of them, but they are dealing with workforce shortages, rising costs and fragmented policy settings that make it harder to grow,” Mr McKellar said.
ACCI’s report calls for a new strategy to extend beyond 2030, align with state and territory plans, and introduce a more comprehensive set of targets covering workforce, regional growth and international competitiveness.
ACCI has proposed a revised national visitor expenditure target of between $280 billion and $300 billion by 2035, reflecting the scale of opportunity in the sector.
It also recommends investigating a dedicated funding stream for tourism through using the Passenger Movement Charge revenue to support infrastructure, workforce development and regional capacity where visitor growth is outstripping existing infrastructure capacity.
Read the full report here.