Victoria benefits from cultural tourism boom

October 7, 2018

Cultural tourism to Victoria is booming, with record numbers of international visitors enjoying the state’s creative and cultural offering, including Melbourne’s flagship museums and galleries.

New figures show international cultural visitors injected almost $2 billion into the state economy last year, an 88% increase since 2013.

China is the city's biggest and fastest growing international market for cultural tourism and is expected to be worth more than $1 billion alone by 2025.

Melbourne Museum is one Victoria’s top attractions for international tourists, with an average of 9.3% of daily visitors coming from overseas. Over the last year, the Carlton museum has seen a 76% increase in visitors from China - almost 20,000 Chinese tourists visited in 2017/18, more than any other international group.

Museums Victoria has employed a dedicated marketing, communications and business development manager for the Chinese market and has delivered initiatives such as Lunar New Year celebrations, partnerships with Chinese media outlets, and in-language signage and collateral.

Melbourne is Australia’s leading city for cultural tourism with creative experiences among the top reasons people visit the city.

Cultural visitors are those who visit three or more cultural sites or events during their trip – including galleries, museums, historical sites and performances. They are lucrative segment of the tourism market and on average, stay longer and spend more during their visit.

Melbourne is home to Australia’s busiest gallery, library, museums and theatres and Victoria’s state-owned cultural attractions welcomed 13.2 million local, national and international visitors last year – a record number.

Melbourne has also been dubbed one of the world’s top music cities – in large part due to our globally recognised independent arts community, street art and music scene.

Commenting on the trend, Victorian Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley stated “it’s great to see so many international visitors spending time in our world-class cultural institutions and we’re working hard to keep growing this valuable market.”

Image: Melbourne Museum.

24th September 2018 - Greater Melbourne’s first ever Destination Management Visitor Plan gets industry unveiling

28th July 2018 - MoMA at NGV exhibition attracts more than 100,000 visitors in first month

18th July 2018 - Key objects announced for world premiere Nelson Mandela exhibition at Melbourne Museum

3rd June 2018 - Australia’s largest contemporary art gallery to open as part of expanded NGV

1st May 2018 - TTF welcomes Victorian Government’s tourism backing in 2018/19 budget

21st September 2017 - National Gallery of Victoria rated Australia’s top museum

7th June 2017 - VTIC highlights challenges for tourism in regional Victoria

6th April 2017 - Visitor attractions hit by stolen credit card scam

6th May 2016 - 399,127 visitors attend Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei exhibition at NGV

24th July 2013 - Victoria’s 2020 Tourism Strategy launched at National Tourism and Events Excellence Conference

12th July 2010 - Melbourne Museums attendance tops two million

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