Tourist spending statistics at a glance
Tourist spending is one of the clearest ways to see how travel demand turns into economic output.
The numbers below show how large the travel economy is across several major destinations, how quickly it recovered after 2020, and how much domestic tourism can outweigh inbound visitor spending in some markets.
Fast facts
- The United Kingdom estimated international tourist spend at GBP 31.1 billion in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom).
- Australia recorded AUD 27.9 billion in international tourist spending in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Australia).
- Canada reached CAN 24.1 billion in international tourist spending in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada).
- France reported EUR 63.5 billion in provisional international tourism revenue in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France).
- The UK, Australia, Canada, and France all show tourism systems where domestic demand matters just as much as inbound visitors, and in some cases more.
Table of contents
- What tourist spending statistics show
- Country-by-country comparison
- United Kingdom tourist spending statistics
- Australia tourist spending statistics
- Canada tourist spending statistics
- France tourist spending statistics
- What the spending patterns suggest
What tourist spending statistics show
Tourist spending statistics are more useful than simple arrival counts because they show the financial weight of each visitor, each trip, and each domestic journey.
A destination can post strong arrival numbers without matching spending strength, and it can also earn more from domestic tourism than inbound tourism in certain years. The data here shows both patterns clearly.
At a glance, four themes stand out:
- International tourism spending rebounded strongly by 2022 and 2023 in the countries listed.
- Domestic tourism remains a dominant driver in multiple markets.
- Some countries depend on a narrow set of source markets, which can make spending patterns more concentrated than arrival totals suggest.
- Tourism policy is now closely tied to spending recovery targets, not just visitor recovery targets.
Country-by-country comparison
The most useful way to read tourist spending statistics is side by side. The table below keeps the main spending figures in one place.
| Country | Latest spending figure | Other relevant tourism figure | Source label |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | GBP 31.1 billion international tourist spend in 2023 | 38.0 million international arrivals in 2023 | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom |
| Australia | AUD 27.9 billion international tourist spending in 2023 | 112.6 million domestic overnight trips in 2023 | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Australia |
| Canada | CAN 24.1 billion international tourist spending in 2023 | CAD 113.4 billion total tourism expenditure in 2023 | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada |
| France | EUR 63.5 billion provisional international tourism revenue in 2023 | 98 million international tourist arrivals in 2023 | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France |
The table makes a simple point: tourist spending is not just a single number. It sits inside a broader system of arrivals, overnight trips, internal tourism consumption, and total tourism expenditure.
That is why two countries with similar visitor activity can still show very different spending outcomes.
United Kingdom tourist spending statistics
The UK has one of the most detailed tourism snapshots in the dataset, and it shows both recovery and imbalance between domestic and inbound travel.
Big number: UK international spend
International tourist spend in the UK was estimated at GBP 31.1 billion in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom).
That figure sits alongside 38.0 million international arrivals in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom). The arrival count is large, but the spending number matters because it reflects the value attached to each trip, not just the volume of trips.
Domestic travel is the larger engine
The UK recorded 117.3 million domestic tourist arrivals in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom).
That is far above the international arrival figure, which is a clear reminder that domestic tourism can dominate national travel totals even when inbound tourism gets the headlines.
The domestic side of the story becomes even more important when you look at the UK Tourism Recovery Plan. It targeted 99 million domestic overnight trips with GBP 19 billion in spend by end-2022 and 41 million international visitors spending GBP 28 billion by end-2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom).
By end-2022, the UK had already reached 126 million domestic overnight trips with GBP 33 billion in spend (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom). That means domestic tourism not only recovered, it exceeded the plan’s target on both trip volume and spend.
UK spending trend snapshot
| Metric | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | Source label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total international receipts | GBP 54.598 billion | GBP 58.299 billion | GBP 25.259 billion | GBP 29.163 billion | GBP 60.371 billion | - | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom |
| International travel receipts | GBP 43.803 billion | GBP 47.506 billion | GBP 22.809 billion | GBP 27.442 billion | GBP 53.064 billion | - | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom |
| Total international expenditure | GBP 77.030 billion | GBP 80.868 billion | GBP 24.636 billion | GBP 27.200 billion | GBP 86.307 billion | - | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom |
This table highlights the collapse in 2020 and the strong rebound by 2022. The UK’s total international receipts rose from GBP 25.259 billion in 2020 to GBP 60.371 billion in 2022 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom), which is a major recovery signal even before the 2023 tourism spend estimate.
Why the UK figures matter
The UK data shows that spending recovery is not a straight line from arrivals to revenue.
A few points stand out:
- UK tourism contributed GBP 15.9 billion in nominal terms in 2021, equal to 0.8% of GVA (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom).
- UK travel exports represented 12.9% of total service exports in 2022 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom).
- The UK had 33 accredited Local Visitor Economy Partnerships as of June 2024 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom).
- The British Tourist Authority budget allocation was GBP 50.7 million in 2023-24 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom).
Those figures show tourism is treated as an economic and policy lever, not only a consumer category.
Australia tourist spending statistics
Australia’s tourism figures show a market where domestic activity is massive and international spending has climbed back into a major position.
International spending and domestic volume
Australia’s international tourist spending reached AUD 27.9 billion in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Australia).
At the same time, Australia logged 112.6 million domestic overnight trips in 2023 and AUD 109.3 billion in total domestic overnight spend in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Australia).
That is a huge domestic base, and it helps explain why national tourism policy cannot focus only on foreign arrivals.
At a glance: Australia’s scale
- Tourism accounted for AUD 63.0 billion or 2.5% of GDP in FY2022-23 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Australia).
- Australian tourism supported 626,400 jobs in FY2022-23 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Australia).
- Tourism-related exports were 58% of total service exports in FY2022-23 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Australia).
- Australia recorded 7.2 million international visitor arrivals in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Australia).
These numbers show a tourism economy with both employment and export significance.
Australia spending and receipts over time
| Metric | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2023 | Source label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total international receipts | AUD 63.253 billion | AUD 68.949 billion | AUD 38.382 billion | - | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Australia |
| International travel receipts | AUD 60.276 billion | AUD 65.484 billion | AUD 37.520 billion | - | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Australia |
| Total international expenditure | AUD 56.853 billion | AUD 59.507 billion | AUD 11.573 billion | - | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Australia |
The 2020 drop in expenditure is especially sharp. That matters because spending recovery usually lags the reopening of borders, the return of flights, and the normalization of long-haul travel.
Australia’s forward-looking targets
Australia’s tourism plan forecasts 10.2 million international arrivals by 2025, 12.1 million international visitor numbers by 2028, and AUD 50.7 billion in tourism spend by 2028 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Australia).
Those forecasts show that tourist spending is being treated as a future-growth metric, not just a recovery benchmark.
Canada tourist spending statistics
Canada’s statistics show a market where total tourism expenditure is very large compared with inbound tourist spending alone.
Canada’s latest spending picture
Canada recorded CAN 24.1 billion in international tourist spending in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada).
But the more revealing figure is CAD 113.4 billion in total tourism expenditure in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada). That gap tells you domestic tourism is doing a great deal of the heavy lifting.
The dataset makes that even clearer: domestic tourism accounted for 76% of total tourism expenditure in Canada in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada).
Key Canada facts
- Canada’s tourism sector directly supported 676,700 jobs in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada).
- Canada recorded over 18.3 million international tourist arrivals in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada).
- Canada recorded over 97 million domestic tourist arrivals in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada).
- Canada’s internal tourism consumption for 2022 included CAD 74.165 billion of domestic tourism expenditure and CAD 19.805 billion of inbound tourism expenditure (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada).
Canada’s tourism composition
The internal tourism consumption figures help show how spending is distributed inside the economy.
| Category | 2022 value | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic tourism expenditure | CAD 74.165 billion | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada |
| Inbound tourism expenditure | CAD 19.805 billion | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada |
| Tourism characteristic products total | CAD 61.034 billion | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada |
| Accommodation services for visitors | CAD 17.470 billion | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada |
| Food and beverage serving services | CAD 14.199 billion | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada |
This kind of breakdown is useful because it shows where tourist spending concentrates once it enters the economy. Accommodation and food service both take meaningful shares of internal tourism consumption (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada).
France tourist spending statistics
France stands out in the dataset because it combines very high arrival volumes with very large tourism revenue figures.
France’s revenue scale
France’s provisional 2023 international tourism revenue reached EUR 63.5 billion (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France).
It also recorded 98 million international tourist arrivals in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France). That combination signals a destination with both scale and spending power.
Domestic tourism remains structurally important
France said domestic tourism structurally represents two-thirds of tourism consumption (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France).
That single statement explains a lot about how French tourism works. In other words, the inbound headline numbers are only part of the picture, because domestic travelers remain central to overall demand.
France spending and balance over time
| Metric | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | Source label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total international receipts | EUR 61.555 billion | EUR 63.313 billion | EUR 31.303 billion | EUR 37.973 billion | EUR 64.488 billion | - | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France |
| International travel receipts | EUR 55.490 billion | EUR 56.730 billion | EUR 28.510 billion | - | - | - | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France |
| Total international expenditure | EUR 50.164 billion | EUR 53.407 billion | EUR 27.589 billion | EUR 33.081 billion | EUR 45.864 billion | - | OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France |
The EUR 64.488 billion total international receipts figure in 2022 is a useful benchmark because it exceeded the 2019 level of EUR 63.313 billion (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France). That suggests a strong recovery path before the 2023 provisional revenue number.
France’s tourism funding context
The French tourism system also has notable public and local funding layers:
- Regional Tourism Committees had a combined budget of EUR 140 million in 2022 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France).
- Departmental Tourism Committees received EUR 222 million in 2022 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France).
- France allocated EUR 822 million to local tourism information offices in 2022 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France).
- The Destination France Plan mobilised more than EUR 1.9 billion from 2022 to 2024 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France).
- France had more than EUR 1.2 billion committed to the Destination France Plan by the end of 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France).
Those are not minor support figures. They show that tourist spending is being reinforced by a substantial policy and infrastructure environment.
What the spending patterns suggest
Tourist spending statistics become more useful when they are interpreted as patterns rather than isolated facts.
1. Domestic tourism is not a side story
In Canada, domestic tourism accounted for 76% of total tourism expenditure in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada). In France, domestic tourism structurally represents two-thirds of tourism consumption (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France). In the UK and Australia, domestic travel volumes are also far larger than international arrivals (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom; OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Australia).
That means any serious reading of tourist spending has to include domestic demand.
2. Recovery matters as much as scale
The 2020 numbers in the UK, Australia, and France all show how sharply tourism spending can fall when travel is disrupted.
- UK total international receipts fell to GBP 25.259 billion in 2020 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom).
- Australia’s total international expenditure dropped to AUD 11.573 billion in 2020 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Australia).
- France’s total international receipts fell to EUR 31.303 billion in 2020 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France).
The rebound afterward is what makes the later figures meaningful. Tourist spending is often a recovery story before it becomes a growth story.
3. Spending targets are now policy targets
Australia’s tourism plan forecasts spend to AUD 50.7 billion by 2028 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Australia). The UK Recovery Plan targeted GBP 28 billion in international visitor spending by end-2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom). France’s Destination France Plan mobilised more than EUR 1.9 billion from 2022 to 2024 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France).
Those figures show governments treating tourism as an outcome that can be actively shaped.
4. Spending and arrivals are related, but not identical
France recorded 98 million international tourist arrivals in 2023 and EUR 63.5 billion in provisional international tourism revenue (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - France). The UK had 38.0 million international arrivals in 2023 and GBP 31.1 billion in international tourist spend (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - United Kingdom). Canada had over 18.3 million international tourist arrivals and CAN 24.1 billion in international tourist spending in 2023 (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada).
The pattern is simple: arrivals matter, but spend per trip and the structure of the tourism economy matter just as much.
5. The biggest numbers often sit outside inbound tourism
Canada’s total tourism expenditure of CAD 113.4 billion in 2023 and Australia’s domestic overnight spend of AUD 109.3 billion in 2023 are both larger than their inbound spending figures by a wide margin (OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Canada; OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024 - Australia).
That is the clearest reminder in the dataset that tourist spending is often driven by residents traveling within their own country.