What is Tourism 2035?

Tourism 2035 is Tourism Australia's ten-year strategy for inbound leisure and business events travel, setting expenditure targets across three horizons to 2035 and naming four priorities for increased focus and investment. The four priorities are marketing to humans and machines, showcasing Australia's breadth of experience, capitalising on the major events runway, and defining a distinctive luxury positioning for Australia.

How much is inbound tourism expected to grow by 2035?

Tourism Australia has set the 2035 target as a band, projecting inbound leisure and business events expenditure to rise from $33 billion in 2025 to between $61 billion and $69 billion. The distance between the two ends of that band is $8 billion of annual expenditure.

What are the three horizons in the strategy?

Tourism Australia has divided the decade into three horizons, each with an expenditure target and an industry check-in at the end: $41 to $43 billion by 2028, $49 to $53 billion by 2031, and $61 to $69 billion by 2035. Horizon One runs from 2026 to 2028 and requires compound annual growth of between 6.9 and 8.3 per cent.

Who is Tourism Australia targeting?

Tourism Australia's target audience is high-yielding travellers across four segments, of which luxury travellers and business events visitors carry the most value per visit. High-yielding leisure travellers represent a global pool of around 80 million people. Luxury travellers sit at the top of that range, defined in the strategy as those spending more than $1,200 AUD per person per day.

Why do business events matter so much in this strategy?

International business events visitors spent an average of 56 per cent more per night than leisure visitors in 2025, and Tourism Australia runs a dedicated unit, Business Events Australia, to grow the segment. Business events travellers also arrive midweek and in shoulder season, when leisure demand is lightest.

What is the Green and Gold decade?

The Green and Gold decade is Tourism Australia's term for the run of major sporting events hosted in Australia through to 2032, and capitalising on it is one of the four strategic priorities. The pipeline includes the 2026 AFC Women's Asian Cup, the 2027 Men's Rugby World Cup and Netball World Cup, the 2028 T20 Men's Cricket World Cup, the 2029 Women's Rugby World Cup, and the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Why is luxury one of the four priorities?

Defining a distinctive luxury positioning for Australia is the fourth priority, and the strategy states that Australian luxury marketing is currently fragmented, with operators and regions promoting their offers in isolation without the scale or coherence to compete in global markets. Tourism Australia notes that global definitions of luxury have shifted away from traditional opulence towards experiences offering connection to nature, rarity, craftsmanship and cultural depth.

Why is aviation described as the critical constraint?

Australia needs an additional 4.4 million inbound airline seats by 2035 to reach the lower end of the target band, building through 1.5 million more by 2028 and 2.8 million by 2031. Tourism Australia's core 16 markets are expected to carry 3.6 million of that total.

What does this mean for ground transport in Australia?

Three things in the strategy translate directly into ground transport demand: business events concentrated midweek and in shoulder season, major event arrival peaks in known cities on confirmed dates, and a national luxury standard that will apply to the transfer as well as the accommodation. Tourism Australia's own reasoning is that tourism's value endures beyond the visit, with travellers returning as repeat visitors, advocates, students and investors.

Why choose Marquee Limousines for inbound and business events transfers?

Marquee Limousines provides chauffeured transfers for inbound leisure and business events travel across Australia, working with tour operators, event organisers and corporate clients on arrivals, departures and multi-vehicle movements. As members of the Australian Tourism Export Council, we are part of this conversation and look forward to the decade ahead.

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Tourism 2035: what Australia’s ten-year tourism strategy means on the ground

Marquee Limousines was in the room when Tourism Australia shared its ten-year Tourism 2035 strategy. What it sets out, and what it asks of the businesses that move visitors once they land.

by Tony Isabella