About

VisitBritain's Australia Mission 2026 provides an in-market platform for up to 20 UK travel trade businesses and destinations with hand-picked buyers from Australia. 

New for 2026, is the addition of a workshop in New Zealand for eight UK suppliers to undertake 1-2-1 meetings with buyers and have direct access to 100+ highly influential travel agents—many of whom are independent and operate like buyers.

Visit West will be attending both the New Zealand and the Australia parts of this exclusive sales mission in 2026.

The event includes a variety of opportunities to gain maximum exposure with the buyers in attendance, mixing one-to-one appointments with product training and more informal networking opportunities such as a gala dinner. 

Contact traveltrade@visitwest.co.uk to find out more about why these markets are important to Bristol, Bath and Beyond.

 

With Australia a top five inbound market for the UK, and visits and spend from New Zealand growing, these markets offer visitors keen to stay longer in the UK, spending more than average, exploring more of the nations and regions and travelling year-round. The Australia Mission and New Zealand Workshop offers an impactful opportunity to build contacts with influential trade and grow your business from these valuable markets.   

With strong historic and cultural ties with the UK, Australian and New Zealand travellers spend more and stay almost twice as long as the average international visitor. Adventurous explorers across Britain’s nations and regions, these visitors are well-placed to boost regional economies throughout the year.
 

Australia is the UK’s fourth most valuable inbound market with 1.28 million Australian visitors set to contribute a record £1.83 billion to the UK economy in 2025. The 2025 estimate for New Zealand should see the market double its pre-pandemic spend and retain its position as one of Britain’s strongest growth markets (post 2019).  

Combined, these markets are set to contribute £2.77bn into the UK visitor economy by 2030.  

Australia: The travel trade are a crucial channel for influencing and converting high value Australian travellers who rely on expert travel agents for validating destination choice and for making complex ultra long-haul holiday bookings.  

New Zealand: New Zealand had record spend and visits in 2024 and had the highest growth (spend) of any market since 2019. Like Australia, these ultra long-haul travellers rely extensively on travel agents to plan their trips and make bookings.