Kiama Tourism Breaks Records – Latest Data Confirms Growth
The latest tourism data confirms record-breaking visitation and spending for the year ending September 2024, with more visitors, longer stays, and higher visitor spend than ever before. Following the success of our 2024 winter marketing campaign, Kiama continues to grow as a must-visit destination.
The latest tourism data from Tourism Strategy Development Services*, which has been monitoring and analysing Kiama’s visitor economy for nearly 30 years, confirms record-breaking visitation and spending for the year ending September 2024. This is the first report following our 2024 winter marketing campaign, and the results speak for themselves—more visitors, longer stays, and higher spending than ever before!
Key Highlights:
- Total nights stayed: 1.8 million – up 29% year on year (new record).
- Total visitor spend: $362 million – up $14 million year on year (new record).
- Domestic overnight visitors: 451,000 – up 14% on September 2023.
- Kiama’s market share of the South Coast remains strong at 10%, and within its reference group at 31%.
- Average stay for domestic visitors: 3.3 nights—nearly a full night longer than pre-COVID (September 2019).
These figures reinforce that our efforts are making an impact—Kiama is attracting more visitors, keeping them longer, and driving record-breaking visitor spend.
With this momentum behind us, we’re gearing up for an even bigger 2025 winter campaign, Coast In, Chill Out. This year, we’re elevating our digital marketing and collaborating with local partners to develop irresistible offers and itineraries that will draw in even more domestic travellers.
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📊 Want to explore the full report?
Get in touch today and stay tuned for more information about our 2025 winter tourism campaign and how you can take part.
*SOURCE: Visitor and visitor nights data extracted from Tourism Research Australia’s (TRA) National and International Visitor Survey datasets under licence by Peter Valerio (peter@tourism-solutions.com.au). Visitor expenditure estimates use TRA’s latest available modelled expenditure estimates for Kiama LGA in conjunction with visitor volumes. All data and related calculations are subject to sample survey error and modelling assumptions. Copywrite remains with TRA.
Meg Gibson