A comparison of Australia's top ten tourist regions has shown that Melbourne, receives almost as much domestic and international tourist spending as Sydney.

A report by Tourism Research Australia, Travel Expenditure by Domestic and International Visitors in Australia's Regions, 2004, found that Sydney attracted $9.6 billion of the combined domestic and international spending for 2004 while Melbourne achieved $7.35 billion.

In percentage terms, Melbourne has 12% of the combined domestic and international spending while Sydney has 15%.

"Melbourne holds more major events and more business events and conferences than Sydney and we have a more consistent and aggressive marketing approach," said John Pandazopoulos, Victoria's Minister for Tourism.

"I believe our marketing is better than Sydney. We are innovative and quirky, in our marketing efforts and we spend more than $100 million a year to promote our tourism and major events," he said.

Melbourne Convention + Visitor Bureau CEO Garry Kingshott said that Melbourne was consistently attracting more large international conferences following the announcement of the government's commitment to a new convention centre which will be completed by late 2008.

"Next year Melbourne hosts the Commonwealth Games which will not only provide an economic stimulus to the city but also provide media coverage of the city's business and tourist attractions to a wide international audience," Mr Kingshott said.