Announcing a raft of new hotel openings and travel initiatives, Tourism Australia (TA) chair Michael Issenberg said Australian tourism was at the beginning of a renaissance.

Some of the biggest new developments and tourism offerings are in New South Wales, with a new airport due to open in Sydney in 2026, along with new Kimpton Margot and Crown hotels and a multimillion-Australian-dollar extension to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, set to open on 3 December.

TA’s managing director Phillipa Harrison said the new developments were part of a strategy to “keep the lights on globally during the pandemic”, with tourism the country’s fourth most important export industry. “It will not be a linear recovery, there will be bumps in the road,” she said. However, 42% of previous inbound business has already returned, partly due to pent-up demand.

UK arrival numbers, meanwhile, are back to to 65% of 2019 levels, and by December this year aviation capacity will be at 70% of pre-pandemic levels. Oxford Economics now predicts tourism to Australia will be back to normal by 2024.

Harrison said emerging post-pandemic trends included a last-minute mindset, “with people booking a couple of months out”, and big-ticket transactions. “People are spending big – transaction values are higher than ever before,” she said. With that in mind, TA will launch a new campaign towards the end of this year with the slogan “Don’t go small, go Australia”.

Another priority, said Harrison, is sustainability, demonstrated by ATE being a carbon-neutral event. Tourism minister Stuart Ayres told delegates some of Australia’s most significant recent investments have been in national parks, with a new eco-tourism area of the Blue Mountains – the Gardens of Stone – soon to open.

Harrison added tourism advocacy and fams would be crucial to Australia’s recovery, with the tourist board ready to “double down” on this next year and invite partners “on a level not seen before”.

ATE featured updates from all the territories, with the lion’s share of new developments in NSW and Queensland. In the past two years, more than AUS $1 billion (£565m) has been invested in new attractions and experiences on southern Queensland’s Gold Coast, with more than 3,000 more hotel rooms added or in the pipeline.

The northern region is focusing on bridging conservation and tourism, with a “Travel for Good” strategy and new tours promoting conservation. Queensland has also launched a new Working Holiday initiative to encourage backpackers to plug a shortage of tourism workers brought about by the pandemic.

A state-by-state rundown included an update on Australia’s largest territory, Western Australia, with the relaunch of Qantas’s London-Perth service, and new, direct Rome-Perth flights launching later this year.

New hotel openings include the Ritz Carlton Perth and Doubletree by Hilton Waterfront, while a new Cap to Cap Walking Trail in Margaret River can now be accessed via direct east coast flights for the first time ever.

Meanwhile, there has been a swathe of new openings in Tasmania, with four new properties debuting in Hobart last year, as well as new boutique and heritage retreats in the Tasmanian wilderness. A new Ritz Carlton hotel is also slated to debut in Melbourne by the end of the year, while in Victoria, a new 160km Grampians Peak trail has just opened to the public.

Elsewhere, southern Australia boasts three new five-star hotels in Adelaide, as well as new immersive experiences including swimming safaris and a $50 million whisky experience. International visitors can discover new experiences in the Red Centre and Northern Territories too, including mountain biking trails and a new walking trail at Uluru.

“We’re very much open and ready to welcome people from around the world,” said Issenberg.

Queensland will host ATE 2023 from 30 April to 5 May.