Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, says a recent Roy Morgan poll has shown Australians are increasingly considering overseas destinations when planning holidays but not all countries are benefiting from the increased propensity of Australians to travel overseas.
Indonesia (Bali) and Japan the winners while China is well down on 2008
The most popular Asian destination is now Indonesia; 10.9 per cent of Australians planning an overseas trip in the next 12 months plan to travel to Indonesia, up 3.4ppts on 2008. The bulk of these Aussie holidaymakers (10.3 per cent) plan on travelling to the tourist island of Bali and only 0.9 per cent plan to travel to other parts of Indonesia. There is a small crossover for Australians intending to travel to both Bali and other parts of Indonesia.
The other big winner over the last decade is Japan. Now 10.5 per cent of Australians planning an overseas trip in the next 12 months plan to go to Japan, more than double the 4.8 per cent of a decade ago. Since 2008 the popularity of Japan as a travel destination for Australians has overtaken China, Singapore and Thailand.
China has seen the most significant decline in popularity over the past decade as an Asian travel destination for Australians although it is worth remembering that the Beijing Olympics were held in China in August 2008.
Over 2.3 million (11.4 per cent) Australians aged 14-plus are intending to travel overseas in the next 12 months.
Because of strong Australian population growth over the past decade the absolute number of 2.3 million intending to travel overseas in the year to March 2018 has nearly doubled from 1.2 million (7.2 per cent) in the year to March 2008. Australia is due to pass 25 million total population during the next month.
A strong driver of the increase is the increasing proportion of Australians now planning to travel to Asia in the next 12 months. Now over one million (5.1 per cent) Australians aged 14-plus plan to travel to Asia in the next 12 months, more than double the number in real terms compared to a decade ago.
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