Aussies bring game to their domestic travels

If you thought Aussies liked their sport, Roy Morgan Research is here to give you even more reason to believe.

New stats show that nearly one in 20 Aussie domestic travellers cheered and chanted at a sporting event on their most recent holiday.

But of course, Melbourne wears the crown, with domestic holidaymakers almost three times as likely to get amongst the sweaty crowds for a good match or race.

Over the past two years, 12.8% of domestic travellers to the cool Victorian capital attended at least one spectator sporting event, from a football, rugby or cricket match (7.5%) to other ball-associated events such as tennis or golf (2.7%), some good old fashioned horseracing (1.9%) or motor racing (1.1%).

Radelaide took out second spot, with around one in 12 of its domestic visitors heading to sports events, ahead of Darwin, Sydney, and then Perth.

Bringing in the rear were Hobart and Brisbane, and finally Canberra, with around 5% of visitors snacking on pies in an arena filled with fans and sports stars.

But sports aren’t the only things these travellers are interested in, with Roy Morgan’s research showing that by gosh, the councils and state governments were right, and that there are, in fact, broader economic benefits to sports tourism.

Visitors who see matches and races are also more likely to get involved in a whole host of activities during their trips, with sports tourists fast becoming the desired targets.

Compared with the average traveller, Roy Morgan has found that sports tourists are:

Over three times more likely to visit a casino
Around twice as likely to go to the theatre or cinema
76% more likely to go to night clubs or bars
66% more likely to go to a concert
42% more likely to go shopping
24% more likely to go to museums

“Melbourne is the clear sports capital of Australia for domestic travellers,” Roy Morgan Research’s group account director for consumer products, Angela Smith, said.

“Over the last two years, Roy Morgan Research has interviewed over 22,000 recent holiday-makers about where they went, who with and for how long, how they got there, where they stayed, the activities they did, how much they spent, and their attitudes to travel.

“Our Helix Personas segmentation tool pinpoints some specific types of people—covering a wide range of age, income and lifestyles—who are more likely to see live sport on holidays: from established rural landowners in Full House (112) to inner-city Cultural Pioneers (208), comfortably suburban Career and Kids (302) to Penny Wise battlers (701), younger households Making Ends Meet (503) to retired Country Conservatives (606).”

Looking at this assorted box of travelling chocolates, it’s easy to see that there is no one typical tourist, but that sports tourism actually dips into most categories.

“While sporting tourism clearly appeals to wide variety of people, each persona has a preference for different sports events and other activities on their trips—and destination marketers would do well to understand these differences,” Smith added.

Image: Fox Sports

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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