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1 December, 2020

STUDY: Only a quarter of Aussies will travel interstate this summer

Aussie travellers are planning on spending their summer holidays close to home, with new research revealing three-quarters of us will travel within our own state.

Research released by the Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF) has shown that only a quarter of Australians will venture interstate this summer, and 25 per cent of those surveyed said they won’t travel at all due to concerns over COVID-19.

The same number are choosing a good-old-fashioned road trip instead of flying and other modes of travel, showing there is still a significant amount of work to do in encouraging Aussies to take to the skies.

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 per cent of those who had been planning overseas travel saying they would spend all or part of their budget domestically.

“Of those surveyed who had been planning an international trip this year, 42.5 per cent said they would spend all of their travel budget locally, with another 28 per cent indicating they would spend part,” she said.

“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.”

On top of this, the research revealed 62 per cent are travelling to support Australian tourism businesses.

“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,” Osmond said.

“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.”

Featured image source: iStock/Lighthousebay

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COVID-19 domestic travel margy osmond research study tourism & transport forum ttf