Australia | Dec 21 2011
– Oz consumers signal they are more likely to stay at home this Christmas
– Those that want to travel are more likely to go overseas
– It probably has never been this cheap to travel overseas for Australians
By Andrew Nelson
A new survey from Westpac isn’t likely to be celebrated by the Australian tourism industry. The December Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment indicates fewer Australians are planning to travel this Christmas and the ones that do are more likely than ever to choose an overseas destination.
According to the data, the stay at home option, or “staycation” has become the most popular choice for Australian holiday destinations, with only 31% of consumers surveyed saying they intend to hit the road this Christmas. Last year, the number was at 33% and in 2009 it was 36% and 2008 was at 38%.
A clearly GFC inspired downtrend, it seems.
The next kicker for Australian destination marketers is overseas destinations are becoming increasingly popular. In fact, 17% of those looking to travel at Christmas are heading overseas. This compares to 13% last year and 11% in 2009.
Westpac Senior Economist Matthew Hassan thinks the final number will probably end of being higher, given a significant number of travellers head off at the last minute.
Of course, he notes the strong AUD is a major factor. Hassan notes Westpac's ‘outbound tourism-weighted’ exchange rate index is 1.8% higher than last year and 37% above its 2008 level. This shows that overseas travel has never been cheaper for Australians.
It’s thus not surprising that the proportion of travellers heading overseas is about as high as Westpac has ever seen.
Many of the new “staycationers” are from New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. While there was an increase in intended travellers from South and Western Australia, Westpac notes those states are still the least inclined to travel.
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