The number of tourists visiting Canberra each year is yet to recover to pre-COVID levels, but those who have visited the capital spent more in a year than ever before.
Visitor expenditure grew 144 per cent to $3.04 billion in the year to December 2022, figures released on Wednesday reveal, the largest amount spent in the ACT in 12 months.
Total visitor numbers recovered to 87 per cent of pre-COVID levels, with the territory visited by 5.33 million domestic and international tourists. This marked an increase of 71 per cent on the previous year.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the capital's attractions and experiences had led more people than ever before to put Canberra on their short-break destination list.
"These results are a testament to the success of our cooperative marketing, aviation development program and tourism strategies post-COVID, and highlights the strength and growing appreciation for Canberra's quality tourism offering," Mr Barr said in a statement.
Figures released by Tourism Research Australia showed 3.03 million domestic overnight visitors came to the ACT in 2022, the ACT government said.
The ACT reported the strongest growth of any state or territory in overnight visitor growth, the ACT government said.
Two-thirds of overnight visitors to the ACT come from NSW, while three quarters of people who make day trips come from the surrounding state.
Mr Barr, who is also the Tourism Minister, said the biggest increase had come from south east Queensland, including the Gold Coast and Brisbane, which he attributed to the airline Jetstar launching routes to Brisbane in December 2021 and the Gold Coast in September 2022.
"The ACT is now on track to exceed its target of $3.1 billion in visitor expenditure by year ending 2025, an interim goal in the T2030: ACT Tourism Strategy 2023-2030 released late last year," he said.
The strategy forecast the ACT visitor economy to be worth $4 billion annually by 2030, which would sustain an estimated 22,000 jobs.
The strategy identified the Canberra tourism "brand" as more than just its national institutions but also the need to be recognised as a place of "thought leadership", sustainability, and a progressive environmental agenda.
Easily accessible and inclusive visitor experiences are also seen as important in building the brand.
Canberra's five key international markets identified for attracting more visitors between now and 2025 included New Zealand, Singapore, the UK, USA and India, with other key markets to be assessed "as COVID-19 restrictions ease".
