Less people are travelling internationally to the ACT, but they are spending more time and money in the region – while China, the United Kingdom and the United States are our tourism power-houses.
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Research from Tourism Research Australia's International Visitors Survey showed the number of visitors from China increased by 18 per cent to year ending March 2015, following an increase of 36 per cent to the year ending December 2014.
There were 3.93 million travellers to the ACT in the most recent year – 177,065 international visitors, 2.04 million domestic overnight visitors and1.71 million domestic day trips.
While China brought over almost 28,000 visitors (15.7 per cent) for the year 2014-15, the UK gave around 20,000 (11.4 per cent) and the USA was third with nearly 19,000 (10.6 per cent).
Figures between the three countries were quite close before China took over in 2012 and has lead the pack since, while New Zealand has dropped in recent years.
"UK and China have rebounded quite strongly, there were some fairly difficult economic conditions particularly around the Global Financial Crisis ... but they are bouncing back now," VisitCanberra director Ian Hill said.
A few thousand less people travelled internationally to the ACT the most recent year, however they spent slightly more time in the area – totalling 4.4 million nights.
Just under half of these international visitors were holidaying in the ACT, around a third were visiting friends and family, and the remaining 24 per cent were here for business, education, or employment.
Each person spent an average $82 per night during their stay – increasing total expenditure from the previous year by 1 per cent to $360 million.
In the latest year, over 2 million domestic visitors flocked to the ACT, with a 3.2 per cent increase from the previous year. They spent around 26.7 per cent more nights in capital, climbing to 6.46 million overstays. They spent a combined $1.15 billion, averaging $562 per visit – an increase in 5.7 per cent.
While tourism is worth 1.6 billion of the ACT economy, Mr Hill's target is $2.5 billion by 2020.
He said the rapid inbound of growth in tourism from China into Australia and Canberra will help make this possible, but aviation access and offshore knowledge is still lacking.
"Internationally we've still got a great task ahead to sell Canberra more," he said.
"They [visitors] don't understand we've got this great nature-based experienced on our doorstep, they don't know our proximity to the snow and the coast so they often think of Canberra as politics."
The most "appealing" event for interstate visitors in the year 2014-15 was Floriade and NightFest, followed by Good Food Month, then Wine, Roses and All That Jazz, and the ICC Cricket World Cup in Canberra.
The most popular time to travel to the ACT is autumn, and activities with a cultural or garden theme are more popular than sporting events for interstate travellers.
Mr Hill believes Canberra's education market has an influence on the increased time people are spending in the area.
"Canberra has a strong market in terms of our university offering. International students stay longer, they also invite friends and relatives to come and visit them."
"Also, the evolution in the past five years of what Canberra is has seen a significant change, with new events like enlighten and Night Noodle Markets. The face of Canberra has changed so much."
