“These latest results prove Sydney and NSW is the number one place to visit in Australia, beating all other states when it comes to visitors, nights and expenditure,” Mr Stoner said.

“This has provided a massive boost to our economy, with 25.7 million visitors from around Australia staying a total of 85.5 million nights and spending $15.1 billion in NSW for the year ending December 2013.

“That’s the greatest amount of money spent by visitors to Sydney and NSW since the survey commenced in 1998 and represents an 8.3 per cent increase on the previous year, triple the national increase,” he said.

“NSW is out-performing the rest of the country with our growth in visitors (3.7 per cent) and visitor nights (2.1 per cent) doubling the national increases.

“This proves that not only are we leading the nation when it comes to visitor numbers, nights and expenditure, but we’re also a leader when it comes to growth.

“These results reaffirm our position as Australia’s leading tourism and major events city and State,” he said.

Destination NSW CEO, Sandra Chipchase, said its little wonder Sydney and NSW are attracting more visitors than any other state with the success of targeted marketing and industry partnership campaigns.

“Our Winter and Summer in Sydney marketing campaigns, as well as our partnership programs with partners such as Accor Hotels, Qantas Airways and online travel agencies plus major events like Vivid Sydney, have clearly helped to drive visitation across our State,” she said.

“In Regional NSW, events such as Rally Australia in Coffs Harbour, Orange Food Week and the Tamworth Country Music Festival have also contributed to these outstanding results,” she said.

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