Canberra tourism numbers hit record high

Data from Tourism Research Australia showed 5.48 million visitors came to the nation's capital in the year to June 2019.

Of those, 2.9 million were overnight visitors from Australia, while a further 2.31 million domestic travellers made the trip to Canberra for the day.

A further 266,000 tourists in the 12-month period were from overseas.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the figures were the most successful tourism numbers for the territory.

"Major events such as Floriade help support local businesses by attracting more visitors to Canberra, filling rooms in our hotels and driving more people to our cafes, restaurants and bars," Mr Barr said.

During the year to June 2019, tourists spent a combined $2.82 billion while in the ACT.

Overnight domestic visitors made up $1.87 billion of the total figure, while those staying from overseas spent a combined $605 million.

Chinese tourists made up more than 20 per cent of international visitors to Canberra, following those from the UK, USA, India and New Zealand rounding out the top five.

Other countries with large international visitor numbers include Germany, Canada, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Mr Barr said increasing visitor numbers from Sydney were also driving tourism figures.

"Canberra's key domestic overnight source markets remained Sydney and regional NSW, followed by Melbourne, regional Victoria and Brisbane, the latter reflective of the introduction of low-cost carriers servicing those markets in recent years," Mr Barr said.

"A record rise in people visiting for holidays and business bumped up the domestic overnight numbers."

The boost in tourists to the national capital comes after a growing number of international flights from Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways.

The recent tourism figures also showed NSW recorded a new high in the number of travellers visiting the state.

In the same 12-month period, NSW received 37.2 million domestic overnight visitors and 4.4 million overseas tourists.