Tourism jobs have grown 34 per cent in the past 10 years, leapfrogging the transport sector and wholesale industry, underlining its growing importance to the economy.

Tourist spending grew for the ninth year in a row to reach $143 billion a year, an increase of $50 billion in the past decade, according to new figures from Austrade. As a result tourism now employs almost 1 million people – or 1 in 13 of Australia's workforce.