Ask most people where souvenirs are sold and they’ll picture a gift shop: shelves of magnets, tea towels and plush kangaroos somewhere near a beach or a landmark. My own client list tells a much broader story.
I went through the 227 stockists I supply across 132 towns and suburbs, and sorted them by the kind of business they are and where they trade. A few things jumped out.
Everyday stores sell a lot of souvenirs
My biggest group of stockists isn’t gift shops. It’s pharmacies.
| Type of store | Stockists |
|---|---|
| Pharmacy | 37 |
| Newsagency | 33 |
| Gift and souvenir shop | 27 |
| Visitor information centre | 14 |
| Fashion boutique | 12 |
| Beachwear and surf shop | 8 |
| Licensed post office | 6 |
| Tourist attraction | 6 |
Pharmacies and newsagencies together make up 70 of the 227, almost a third of my client base. Dedicated gift and souvenir shops come in at 27.
When you think about how people shop on holiday, it makes sense. In a holiday town the pharmacy and the newsagency are right on the main street, they’re open long hours, and just about everyone walks in at some point, whether it’s for sunscreen, a newspaper or a birthday card. Put a spinner of destination magnets or a shelf of hats near the counter and that visit turns into a souvenir sale.
The rest of my list is just as mixed: golf shops, fishing and camping stores, roadhouses, museums, cafés with a gift corner, holiday park shops, tour operators, even a marine chandlery. My rule of thumb is simple: if visitors walk through your door, you can sell souvenirs.
Coastal Queensland and New South Wales lead the way
| State | Stockists |
|---|---|
| Queensland | 95 |
| New South Wales | 84 |
| Victoria | 24 |
| Western Australia | 17 |
| Northern Territory | 4 |
| South Australia | 3 |
My busiest regions are the coastal holiday spots, not the capital cities:
- Bundaberg and the Fraser Coast (22 stockists), including Bargara, Bundaberg and Hervey Bay
- Tropical North Queensland (20), centred on Cairns and Kuranda
- The Sapphire Coast (19), from Merimbula and Tura Beach down to Eden and Tathra
- Port Stephens and the Great Lakes (16) and the Coffs Coast (16)
- The Capricorn Coast and 1770 (13) and Illawarra and Shoalhaven (13)
- The Whitsundays (12), led by Airlie Beach
My single busiest cluster of towns is on the Sapphire Coast: 15 stockists around Merimbula, Tura Beach, Eden, Tathra and Pambula Beach. Pharmacies, newsagencies and three visitor information centres sit right alongside the fishing and camping stores.
If you want to see every region and town, it’s all on my stockist map.
If you make or import a product
If you’re pitching a souvenir or gift range, don’t just think about gift shops. A big share of the stores I call on are pharmacies, newsagencies, visitor centres and specialist shops in tourist towns. Each one has different customers and a different amount of space, and each needs a range that suits it.
That’s where an agent who’s already walking into those stores earns their keep. Here’s how representation works.
If you run a store
If you own a pharmacy, newsagency, post office or general store in a tourist town, you’re already in the souvenir business, or you could be. Visitors are walking past your counter every day.
The trick is choosing products that suit your customers and your space without overcommitting. I call on stores of every size, and I’m happy to help you put together a range that works. Book a visit or ask me for range advice.
About these figures: they come from Rose Agencies’ own client records (227 stockists with a known town, October 2026), grouped by store type and tourism region. They describe my client base, not the whole Australian market. Store names and addresses are kept private.