The new mobility data, which uses de-identified and aggregated data from several million mobile phones, harnesses technology to provide insights regarding domestic travellers that traditional surveys can’t.
Mobility data is published monthly, typically within a fortnight of the month ending. This complements TRA’s more comprehensive National Visitor Survey, which will continue to be published each quarter.
Head of Tourism Research Australia, Grant Ferres, said that the monthly data is a fast and reliable source of insights on domestic vistors for the tourism industry.
“We have been publishing mobility data at a national and state/territory level for several months. This inaugural release of data for all 76 tourism regions is a continuation along TRA’s path of delivering data at more granular levels of geography and on a more timely basis. We have been able to develop this data for publication thanks to additional funding from the Australian Government.”
TRA's mobility data model draws on data from a variety of sources, including mobile phone network and GPS data, population data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and inputs from TRA’s own National Visitor Survey. All data is anonymised and aggregated, to ensure confidentiality and privacy is prioritised at every stage.
The new data resource is published in a user friendly interactive dashboard, which allows users to choose the geographic location and month of interest. The data is presented as a comparison with the same month from the previous year, to assist with understanding changes and trends in visitation.
Mobility data also forms an important and major component of a new domestic ‘big data’ product called Domestic Tourism Statistics (DoTS), which will replace the current National Visitor Survey as the source of official domestic tourism statistics from early next year.
Improving data and insights is a priority of Australia’s national long-term strategy for the visitor economy, THRIVE 2030, and the new data supports Australia’s broader Data and Digital Government strategy.
View the monthly regional mobility data.