Australians turning towards more overseas travel
Overseas travel now high priority for many Australians has 2009 figure reports
Australians are now choosing to travel overseas rather than domestic more than ever before after data from 2009 figures show major shift in consumer travel trends and preferences.
According to the latest Roy Morgan Single Source data, the number of Australians that are considering taking up an overseas holiday in the next two years has risen significantly as compared to a decade ago. The results have indicated a shift in attitude towards overseas travel with it now appearing far more achievable to ma y more Australians than previously.
In fact, an increasing percentage of Australians would like to take an overseas holiday within the next two years according to results from surveys in September 2009. In the year ended September 2009 44.9 per cent of Australians said they were interested in overseas travel which is up from 43.4 per cent in the year ended March 2001.
While these figures are fairly similar, the real difference comes in the attitude towards domestic travel with the percentage of Australians wishing to holiday with the nation’s borders falling from 82.5 per cent in 2001 to 78.1 per cent in 2009.
These figures correlate to actual bookings and travel flights with the number of Australians who have actually embarked on an overseas holiday rising from 13.1 per cent in the year ended March 2001 to 19.3 per cent in the year ended September 2009. For domestic travel this remained fairly stable with the number of people who have actually travelled domestically being reported between 65 and 66 per cent.
Roy Morgan Research International Director of Tourism, Travel and Leisure, Jane Ianniello, stated in a press release from the company that national currency, a wider scope of research possibilities and higher incomes have all impacted on the trend towards overseas travel.
The trend towards overseas travel is partly caused by cheaper international airfares, a strong Australian dollar, increased air access to a wider choice of overseas destinations, and the increasing wealth of the average Australian.
“In addition, more Australians are born overseas, especially Asia and New Zealand, which has led to Australia becoming a more multicultural and progressive society that increasingly aspires to holidays in exotic overseas destinations.
Ms Ianniello stated that the Internet has changed the travel agencies and booking industry by allowing travellers to completely bypass the travel agent and book their own holidays, which has been especially evident in especially short-haul flights to New Zealand and Asia.
Roy Morgan Research has just released its most recent “Travel Agent Brand Health and Holiday Booking Trends” report examining how travel agents are performing over time relative to their competitors in terms of awareness, advertising awareness, usage, consideration and loyalty, reported Ms Ianiello.
“It reports on these measures for both traditional bricks-and-mortar travel agents such as Flight Centre and Harvey World Travel as well as online-only travel agents such as wotif.com and Webjet.
“The report also shows how the internet has changed the way Australians are booking their holiday and leisure travel, and provides details on which travel websites Australians have visited in the last 4 weeks.” She concluded.
