Tourism is a significant industry in the state of Victoria, Australia. The country's second most-populous city, Melbourne was visited by 2.7 million international overnight visitors and 9.3 million domestic overnight visitors during the year ending December 2017. Often lauded as Australia's heart of culture, Melbourne's attractions include sporting events, art galleries, live music, festivals and fashion events that are popular with tourists and locals alike. Named the world's most liveable city from 2011 to 2017, Melbourne's culture and lifestyle have been increasingly promoted internationally, leading to average year-on-year growth of international visitors of 10% in the five years to 2017. In its annual survey of readers, the Condé Nast Traveler magazine found that both Melbourne and Auckland were considered the world's friendliest cities in 2014. The magazine described the "wonderful sense of humour" of Melburnians, who live among public art and parks.

Tourist numbers

Popular sites

Melbourne's most popular tourist sites for fiscal year ending June 2018: Other notable sites:

Restaurant & café districts

Restaurants

Melbourne is known for its foodie culture and its abundance, variety and quality of restaurants. In part this is due to various waves of immigration and the multicultural fabric of the city. Major restaurant strips are located throughout the inner city and the inner suburbs, including:

Coffee Culture

Melbourne is also known as a coffee-obsessed city, with the flat white an Australian-invented favourite (though the flat white is believed to have originated in Sydney). The city's coffee culture is largely a result of Italian immigration, but has evolved into a local passion over time. It is often claimed that Pellegrini's Espresso Bar, on Bourke Street, was the first cafe to use the espresso machine in Melbourne. The city centre features a ubiquitous cafe culture, with high concentrations of cafés around a few famous alleys, including: Many inner suburbs also feature streets famous for cafes, including:

Bars, pubs and nightlife

Melbourne features Australia's most active nightlife scene with pubs, bars, and nightclubs spread throughout the city and inner suburbs. The CBD contains a wide variety of venues, from Irish pubs and more traditional Australian hotels, through to wine bars, jazz venues on Bennetts Lane, nightclubs and dance venues (where the Melbourne Shuffle was born). Venues are often located down Melbourne's famous network of laneways and alleys. Well-known pub, bar and nightclub districts include: Melbourne also has a vibrant gay community, with gay and gay-friendly bars across the city. It is mostly concentrated on two gay villages – Commercial Rd, South Yarra and Smith St, Collingwood, but there are also gay bars and clubs in St Kilda, Fitzroy, Richmond and Yarraville.

Close to Melbourne

There are a variety of interesting things to see outside Melbourne proper but still within a day trip of Melbourne:

Australian tourism

Melbourne's domestic tourist spend per capita exceeded Sydney for the first time in 2008; however a spokesman for the NSW Tourism Minister stated that Melbourne earned less in terms of overall tourist revenue.