AusLeisure

Three out of four Australians planning a summer holiday will travel within their own state while 25% won’t travel at all in the Christmas break due to continuing concerns over COVID 19 according to newly research released from the Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF).

The national survey of 2,300 Australians conducted by tourism, events and arts advisory consultancy MI Associates reveal that only a quarter of respondents intending to travel during the summer school holidays were planning to venture outside their own state.

The same number are choosing a road trips in lieu of flying and other modes and travel showing there is still significant work to do to encourage Australian to take to the skies and to open up the nation’s ailing visitor economy and to attract the higher yield interstate travellers.

TTF Chief Executive, Margy Osmond said while there was still some reluctance among respondents to get on a plane there was also reason for optimism with regional areas nationally experiencing record bookings and over 70% of those who had been planning overseas travel saying they would spend all or part of their budget domestically.

Osmond advised “of those surveyed who had been planning an international trip this year, 42.5% said they would spend all of their travel budget locally with another 28% indicating they would spend part.

“This is great news for domestic operators and shows there is significant opportunity to capture the outbound spend of locals who were going abroad although it would still not fully compensate for the lack of international visitation.

“Anecdotal data from our airline members also shows bookings have ramped up since Queensland announced it would open its borders to Sydneysiders and Victorians on December 1 and with the South Australian/Victorian border reopening on the same date.

“Confidence however continues to be an issue but the low COVID case figures over the last couple of weeks hopefully will alleviate these concerns if they continue without another significant outbreak. The corporate travel market is also expected to take some time to recover as businesses remain reluctant to ask their staff to travel.”

Other findings of the survey include:

• 54% of respondents favour a coastal summer holiday
• 62% are travelling to support Australian tourism businesses
• 52% of those planning to travel will be visiting family and friends
• 36% of those surveyed are concerned about another outbreak of COVID 19.

Image courtesy of Visit Sunshine Coast.

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