How many domestic visits in 2018 compared to 2016?
In 2018, park visitation was estimated at a total of 60.23 million visits, accrued from 45.33 million adult and 14.9 million child visits. This is an increase of 16.6% on 2016 results.
|
NPWS Park Visitation by Year |
Adult Visitation |
Child Visitation |
Total Visitation |
|---|---|---|---|
|
2008 |
31,128,875 |
6,798,741 |
37,927,616 |
|
2010 |
27,262,279 |
6,581,347 |
33,843,626 |
|
2012 |
28,745,337 |
6,750,287 |
35,495,624 |
|
2014 |
31,674,661 |
7,761,387 |
39,436,048 |
|
2016 |
40,103,897 |
11,558,047 |
51,661,944 |
|
2018 |
45,333,817 |
14,902,193 |
60,236,009 |
What parks do they visit?
In terms of volume of visits Blue Mountains National Park retains its top position in 2018 with 8.43 million visits. This was followed by Royal National Park 6 million visits, Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park 3.9 million, Kosciuszko National Park 3.27 million and Sydney Harbour National Park 2.42 million.
Table 1 – Top 5 national parks
Who visits?
Intrastate visitation comprised 87.2% of all visits, while interstate visitation comprised 12.7% of visits a proportional increase from 2014, 2012 and 2010. Melbourne at 4.3% was our most significant interstate market.
Table 2 – Origin of visits
| Final adjusted annual park visitation estimate 2018 | Adult Visits | Child Visits | Total Visits | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
| Sydney | 24,826,398 | 54.76% | 8,496,187 | 57.01% | 33,322,585 | 55.32% |
| Remainder NSW | 14,937,565 | 32.95% | 4,280,507 | 28.72% | 19,218,072 | 31.90% |
| ACT | 686,397 | 1.51% | 259,833 | 1.74% | 946,230 | 1.57% |
| Melbourne | 1,920,081 | 4.24% | 682,206 | 4.58% | 2,602,287 | 4.32% |
| Remainder VIC | 575,303 | 1.27% | 219,814 | 1.48% | 795,117 | 1.32% |
| Brisbane | 1,099,846 | 2.43% | 605,504 | 4.06% | 1,705,350 | 2.83% |
| Remainder SE QLD | 753,086 | 1.66% | 164,702 | 1.11% | 917,788 | 1.52% |
| Remainder QLD | 64,888 | 0.14% | 23,455 | 0.16% | 88,343 | 0.15% |
| SA | 120,192 | 0.27% | 43,446 | 0.29% | 163,638 | 0.27% |
| WA | 219,565 | 0.48% | 79,368 | 0.53% | 298,933 | 0.50% |
| TAS | 105,414 | 0.23% | 38,105 | 0.26% | 143,519 | 0.24% |
| NT | 25,081 | 0.06% | 9,066 | 0.06% | 34,148 | 0.06% |
| Total Australia 2018 | 45,333,817 | 100.00% | 14,902,193 | 100.00% | 60,236,009 | 100.00% |
| Margin of Error | ±2.61% | n/a | ±6.64% | n/a | ±3.61% | n/a |
| Total Australia 2016 |
40,103,897 | 100.00% | 11,558,047 | 100.00% | 51,661,944 | 100.00% |
| Margin of Error |
±2.89% | n/a |
±6.24% | n/a |
±3.64% | n/a |
| Total Australia 2014 | 31,674,661 | 100.00% | 7,761,387 | 100.00% | 39,436,048 | 100.00% |
| Margin of Error | ±2.84% | n/a | ±7.99% | n/a | ±3.85% | n/a |
| Total Australia 2012 | 28,745,337 | 100.00% | 6,750,287 | 100.00% | 35,495,625 | 100.00% |
| Margin of Error | ±2.90% | n/a | ±8.02% | n/a | ±3.87% | n/a |
| Total Australia 2010 | 27,262,279 | 100.00% | 6,581,347 | 100.00% | 33,843,626 | 100.00% |
| Margin of Error | ±3.18% | n/a | ±7.44% | n/a | ±4.00% | n/a |
| Total Australia 2008 | 31,128,875 | 100.00% | 6,798,741 | 100.00% | 37,927,616 | 100.00% |
| Margin of Error | ±3.34% | n/a | ±4.40% | n/a | ±3.54% | n/a |
What sort of trips are they on when they visit parks?
Over 40% of visits to our parks are part of a regular routine, 32.4% are day trip based and 19% are part of an overnight or multi-day trip.
Table 3 – Trip Type
How important are parks for generating tourism travel?
Over 45% of NSW national park visitors indicated that the only reason for their trip was to visit the NSW NPWS park and another 25.2% indicated that the park was their main reason for their trip.
Table 4 – Role of Park visitation in trip generation
Age of visitors
The proportion of visits made by 18-24 year olds in 2010, 2014, 2016 and 2018 are significantly higher than in 2008 (Table 5). The proportion of visits from 18-34 year olds in both 2010 and 2018 are also significantly higher than in 2008, 2013 and 2016, indicating that the age profile for visits made is younger in 2010 and 2018. The same upward trend is also apparent for 25-39 year olds and there is an indicative decrease from 2016 in visits by those over 50 years of age.
Table 5 – Age of visitors
What do visitors do?
Walking is consistently the most commonly named activity undertaken in parks at 64%. Up indicatively from the level quoted in 2016 (63%). Walking is followed by water-based recreation at (21%) up from 2016, Touring and sight-seeing (14%) and picnicking/dining which remains at (14%).
These are followed by a host of other activities including enjoyment and appreciation of nature, which is up from previous surveys at (6%), followed by cycling, nature play and camping and accommodation.
Table 6 – On-park visitor activities
How satisfied are visitors?
Satisfaction with park visits in 2018 stayed at the high level attained in 2016 with an overwhelming 94% of visitors being satisfied to very satisfied. 65% of those were very satisfied a higher rating than achieved in 2016.
Table 7 – Overall visitor satisfaction with park visit
