Australia's historic move toward legalising same-sex marriage could bring businesses a massive windfall of "pink dollars" as tens of thousands of gay couples tie the knot, economists said Wednesday.

Legislation legalising same-sex marriage is expected to pass parliament by the end of the year after the announcement Wednesday that Australian voters had resoundingly backed it in a national poll. 

With nearly 50,000 same-sex couples in Australia, and countless gay tourists who could come to the country to marry, the wedding industry is in for a boom. 

"We've got this pent-up demand and we could see over the next year or so, once the legislation is passed, a sharp increase in the number of weddings," ANZ senior economist Felicity Emmett told AFP.