DoTS Hub

Tourism Research Australia (TRA) introduced Domestic Tourism Statistics collection (DoTS) to improve the quality and timeliness of domestic visitor data and to deliver more reliable statistics for the tourism industry. 

The previous National Visitor Survey (NVS) data was collected solely via mobile phone surveys, and due to the rise of scam calls and data breaches, people are currently less likely to participate in phone interviews. As a result, the NVS data was at risk of becoming less representative, less reliable and of lower quality. 

TRA’s new DoTS solution introduces a world-leading, modern approach to measuring domestic tourism statistics. It brings together mobile phone data, which takes advantage of over five billion data points each day, and 32,000 face-to-face and online interview surveys to produce high quality, granular and timely statistics. 

The new DoTS system is an exciting development for operators as it represents a more modern way to understand the WA tourism sector and in turn will help you make more informed decisions about your business. 

Tourism WA continues to work closely with TRA to understand the practical implications of the changed approach and how it impacts us and the wider WA tourism industry. 

We will continue to provide updates to industry here and in Talking Tourism, our weekly industry newsletter, including sharing the latest insights on domestic visitor data. 

Tourism WA’s Insights and Strategy team has transitioned to reporting DoTS data for the March quarter 2025 reporting period onwards. The team will be reviewing and updating the factsheets on the corporate website as additional DoTS data becomes available.  

We are also assessing whether any further action needs to be taken by Tourism WA in relation to strategies, operations, or reporting. 

We will continue to keep the industry updated throughout this process. If you have any queries, please reach out to research@westernaustralia.com. 

The changed approach came into effect in January 2025 and was first reflected in visitor data for the March quarter of 2025. 

The first set of data was released by the TRA on 25 June 2025. 

On this date TRA also released adjusted domestic visitor data back cast to 2019, to allow for comparison of the past six years between historical NVS data and DoTS-generated data. 

This is referred to as ‘backcast’ data and is available for trips, nights, and spend at a national and state level only. 

As part of our commitment to supporting a high-performing industry, Tourism WA will continue to keep the WA tourism industry updated as more information and data becomes available from TRA. 

Any questions from WA industry can be shared with Tourism WA’s Insights and Strategy team at research@westernaustralia.com.

TRA’s website is also a great source of information at tra.gov.au, or they can be contacted at tourism.research@tra.gov.au.

DoTS applies to domestic tourism only, so is relevant for the interstate and intrastate markets, which sit within the remit of State Tourism Organisations (STOs) like Tourism WA, and Regional Tourism Organisations (RTOs), respectively. 

There are no changes to the way international visitor statistics are generated, and no changes to the International Visitor Survey.