New travel insights released by Visit Anaheim, the official tourism marketing organisation for Anaheim, revealed that travel from Australia is contributing to the destination’s 2024 record-breaking visitation results, with over 26 million annual visitors spending a total of $6.6 billion.
According to Azira, a global data platform that uses anonymised mobile data to track visitor behaviour, Australians are choosing to extend their holiday time in Anaheim with an average length of stay up from 4.5 nights to 6 nights year on year in 2024.
The data also showed that overnight stays in the Californian destination continue to increase, with 91.3% of Australians visiting Anaheim choosing to make it their overnight holiday base, indicating that more and more Aussies are choosing Anaheim as their preferred base for a Southern California adventure.
This strong growth from Australia also helped to boost the destination’s overall inbound results, with international visitors to Anaheim up from 1.7 million in 2023 to 3.6 million in 2024, according to a Tourism Economics report.
Visit Anaheim actively promotes the destination in Australia, hosting trade and media events and coordinating in-region fam trips to boost visitation and showcase just how much Anaheim loves the Australian travel sector.
Earlier this year, a high-profile delegation from Anaheim took part in a dedicated Australia mission, with Visit Anaheim’s Tourism Director, Michael Young, joined by industry partners including the Westin Anaheim Resort, the Howard Johnson Anaheim Resort & Water Playground, the Desert Palms Hotel & Suites and Karmel Connect, timed to leverage the excitement around this year’s Disneyland Resort 70th Celebration.
The mission, hosted by Visit Anaheim’s local Australian representative Michael Cassis and PR Manager Louise Terry, included a VIP Brunch event in Sydney to connect with leading retail partners and travel media as well as a series of one-on-one meetings with key travel companies.
Continuing to support and engage with the Australian market is a critical element of Visit Anaheim’s work in positioning the destination as a must-stay for visitors in the lead-up to next year’s FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympics, now just three years away.
Tourism-driven events like the 2028 Olympics are anticipated to also bring early visitation around potential test events, training camps and previews. As the official home of USA Volleyball and with planned enhancements to the Honda Center arena, Anaheim is primed to benefit from increased tourism leading up to, and during, the Games.
Visit Anaheim is also setting the stage to continue breaking visitation records in the coming years with the addition of five new hotels, catering for nearly 1000 additional guest rooms by 2030, and milestone developments like OCVIBE and the Disneyland Forward expansion, as well as hosting the US Travel Association’s flagship tourism event, IPW, in 2030.
