Tourism in Melbourne

Tourism in Melbourne is a significant industry in the Australian state of Victoria. Melbourne, the country's second most-populous city, was visited by just under two million international overnight visitors and 57.7 million domestic overnight visitors during the year ending March 2014. Melbourne's attractions include spectator sports, art, live music, festivals and fashion events that are popular with tourists. In 2008 Melbourne exceeded Sydney for the first time, in terms of money spent by domestic tourists on a per capita basis; however, at the time that the figures were released, a spokesman for the NSW Tourism Minister stated that Melbourne earned less in terms of overall tourist revenue.

In its annual survey of readers, the Conde Nast Traveler magazine found that both Melbourne, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand were considered the world's friendliest cities in 2014. Both cities received scores of "86.0", while the magazine describes the "wonderful sense of humour" of Melburnians, who live among public art and parks.

Melbourne has numerous year-round events and attractions, such as:

Melbourne is also noted for the number, variety and quality of its restaurants. Major restaurant strips are found throughout the city and the suburbs, including:

Melbourne contains all manner of pubs, bars, and nightclubs. The CBD contains a wide variety of venues, from the ubiquitous faux-Irish pubs and more traditional Australian hotels, through some very upmarket wine bars, serious jazz venues on Bennetts Lane, fashionable nightclubs and dance venues (where the Melbourne Shuffle was born), are often hidden away down dark alleyways.

The restaurant strips, particularly Brunswick Street have their own bars, some of which are the best rock venues in Melbourne. King Street, on the southern side of the CBD, was traditionally a nightclub strip and still hosts several, but many are now exotic dancing venues. Chapel Street, Prahran, is perhaps the trendiest, most upmarket nightlife strip. Bayside St Kilda is the home of several huge music venues including the famous Esplanade Hotel (known as 'the Espy'), the Prince of Wales, and The Palace.

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