New Tourism Data

Today Roy Morgan Research released some longitudinal data on tourism. With over 18,000 responses drawn from their annual door-to-door surveys over the last 10 years the results show a clear change in behaviors and a distinct difference in the under 30 and 30+ markets.

Below are some of the key findings:

More people are taking overseas holidays than domestic holidays. Those taking an overseas holiday have risen from 13% to 21 % from 2001 till 2010. When asked the respondents would like to travel domestically or overseas: overseas has increased from 43-47% with domestic destination decreasing from 82%t to 77%

photo from http://www.myfirstholiday.com

Though currently the Australian dollar is very strong the cost of holidaying domestically and overseas - when looked at in terms of CPI increases - has remained fairly consistent

Factors that appear to be influencing the increase in the demand overseas travel include:

• A significant increase in awareness and available destinations in the last 10 years
• An increase in the cultural diversity of Australia
• An increase in “openness to new ideas”

People are more active on their holidays. 72% of domestic tourists wanting to explore local culture with this increasing to 82% for overseas travelers . Of sightseeing activities undertaken while overseas museums and galleries rank well in the options (30% & 19 % repetitively)

People are also traveling more by air with “Drive only” holidays falling from 73% in 2001 to 64% in 2010. When Jetstar joined the market in 2004 there was a significant drop in drive only holidays.

Under 30’s:

• have lower discretionary income. This is across owner/occupiers, renters and those living at home. The Under 30's appear to have quite high person debt from either credit card or personal loans.
• are taking less holidays but saving for a year or two to take a longer OS holiday
• less likely to want to take a weekend away ( 66% in 2001  to 57% in 2010 )
• are now more likely to agree with the statement “ it only feels like a holiday if I leave Australia  (9% in 2001 to 15% 2010)