Road trips top list of Aussie summer holidays

The opening of more state borders has led to a surge in airline bookings but most Aussies have already decided where they’re spending their holidays.

Three in four Aussies planning to travel over summer will do so within their own state or territory, new research commissioned by the Tourism and Transport Forum has revealed.

Just 12 per cent of respondents to the online survey of 2300 people said they planned to visit another state capital over Christmas and New Year, although that proportion was slightly higher for Victorians (13 per cent) and decidedly lower for Western Australians (7 per cent).

About one in four respondents (26 per cent) said they would not be travelling at all because of coronavirus restrictions.

The research comes just a day before Queensland opens borders completely to NSW and Victoria, and SA opens its border to Victoria.

While the Sunshine State is expecting a surge in visitors from interstate, research suggests many travellers are still focused on seeing friends and family rather than book leisure holidays.

Travel into Western Australia remains restricted for all, while South Australians cannot currently get into Tasmania without going into quarantine – although Premier Peter Gutwein has flagged a possible change to this policy soon.

The research, conducted by Sydney-based agency MI, also showed a big majority (70 per cent) of Aussies intending to travel said they would do so using their own car, and a further 10 per cent said they’d use a hire car.

Just 15 per cent of respondents nationally said they intended to fly.

But recent border announcements have led to a surge in interstate airline bookings, with Virgin Australia reporting its single biggest day of bookings since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last Wednesday when Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the opening of the state’s border to Victoria from December 1.

Of all bookings around 75 per cent were to the Sunshine State.

Aussies will holiday in their own backyards this summer due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

A Virgin spokeswoman told News Corp that since the recent announcements about the reopening of the Queensland border, bookings had been some 50 per cent higher than normal.

Tourism and Transport Forum CEO Margy Osmond said many people were choosing to stay in their home state to avoid hassles brought about by possible future border closures.

“While the borders are opening, people are still a bit nervous about the whole open/closed thing,” she said.

“And because Queensland has opened so late, many people have already gone ahead and booked something because they weren’t prepared to sit back and wait.”

The primary reason for a lot of trips in this “first surge” was for people to catch up with friends and family, rather than a big leisure holiday, Ms Osmond said.

The research also found 70 per cent of Australians who had been hoping to spend their Christmas holidays overseas were now planning to spend all (43%) or some (28%) of their travel budget in Australia.

“It’s pretty good news,” Ms Osmond said.

“I daresay that’s what all the destination agencies around the country were desperately hoping would happen.”

With regard to the possibility of future outbreaks leading to border closures, Ms Osmond said she was hopeful that “common sense prevails” and the state premiers could agree on a uniform set of triggers for lockdowns in future.

“Otherwise we will struggle to restore the confidence of the travelling public, and it will be very bad for the industry,” she said.

She lauded Gladys Berejiklian’s decision to keep the NSW border open with SA during the recent Adelaide outbreak.

“I think now is the time for all governments to realise they have to manage the risk, not treat this like an ongoing emergency,” Ms Osmond said.