Byron Bay tops 2022 hostel list as Aussies embrace holidaying at home

Byron Bay has topped another travel list – but this one has left many scratching their head, as 2022 forecasts are thrown out the window.

Byron Bay is yet again proving insanely popular with travellers – and the NSW coastal haven isn’t just being flooded by Aussie families and couples.

For the first time ever, Byron Bay has taken out the top spot on global booking site Hostelworld for Australian hostel bookings in 2022.

Data from Hostelworld showed close to half of Aussie backpackers weren’t interested in fleeing overseas next year, with 43 per cent of bookings on the hostel site for Australian accommodation.

Byron Bay has taken out Hostelworld’s top spot next year.

But it isn’t just Byron Bay that Aussie backpackers are interested in.

Eleven of the 20 destinations booked by Australians for hostel trips in 2022 were domestic.

The data shocked Hostelworld, with less than 5 per cent of Aussies usually booking trips within Australia each year.

The global booking site had just under seven million bookings in 2019.

In 2019, before the pandemic, not a single Australian city or town ranked in Hostelworld’s top 20 list.

While the data wouldn’t have come as a shock in 2020 and 2021, where international border closures brought global travel to a standstill, Aussies have continued the stay-at-home trend into 2022.

Aussie backpackers are embracing trips at home for 2022.

Byron Bay recorded massive growth, jumping from 32nd place in 2019 to top spot in 2022 and saw an 86 per cent jump in bookings.

But there was still some interest overseas, with a hostel in London ranking fourth, a hostel in Amsterdam ranking sixth and Barcelona taking out the eighth spot.

Pre-pandemic, Aussies booked hostels in Tokyo, London and Amsterdam the most.

The east coast of Australia will be teeming with domestic backpackers next year with Airlie Beach and Cairns also taking out second and third spot, respectively.

Both saw huge jumps with Airlie Beach, in the Whitsundays region of Queensland, ranking 295th on Hostelworld for trips due to take place in 2020 and Cairns, the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, ranking 114th.

While domestic bookings featured more on Hostelworld’s – with only nine of the top 20 being outside Australia, 57 per cent of all bookings for 2022 were for international travel.

Backpackers are still keen to get overseas but the top destinations are still Australian.

The rankings and growth trends compared bookings made in the past three months – between August 10 and November 10 for travel in 2022.

The 2022 trends were compared to normal figures pre-pandemic, using the same booking period between August and November in 2019, for travel that was due to take place in 2020 regardless of any cancelled trips.

Hostelworld’s top 20 most booked destinations for Aussie travellers in 2022

1. Byron Bay, NSW

2. Airlie Beach, Queensland

3. Cairns, Queensland

4. London, UK

5. Surfers Paradise, Queensland

6. Amsterdam, Holland

7. Sydney, NSW

8. Barcelona, Spain

9. Paris, France

10. Rome, Italy

11. Athens, Greece

12. Hobart, Tasmania

13. Queenstown, New Zealand

14. Alice Springs, Northern Territory

15. Budapest, Hungary

16. Noosa, Queensland

17. Blue Mountains, NSW

18. Coral Bay, Western Australia

19. Launceston, Tasmania

20. Honolulu, Hawaii