Cost and climate change are the biggest concerns for travellers, landmark survey reveals

Cost is the greatest concern when it comes to post-pandemic travel for Australians, while the impact of climate change is prompting more to want to travel sustainably.

Many Australians surveyed said they wanted to travel more domestically. Picture: Richard Jupe

Cost is the greatest concern when it comes to post-pandemic travel for Australians, while the impact of climate change is prompting more to want to travel sustainably, according to a landmark survey by one of the world’s biggest online travel companies.

Booking.com, the largest online travel agency on the planet by revenue, will on Monday release its inaugural APAC Travel Confidence Index, which explores the overall comfort levels, motivators and concerns of consumers across the Asia-Pacific and variations across the region.

The study found 72 per cent of Australian respondents said cost was the greatest consideration for post-pandemic travel, higher than the average (59 per cent) of all travellers polled across Asia-­Pacific.

Booking.com’s Singapore-based managing director Laura Houldsworth – who last week made her first visit to Australia since the pandemic after joining the firm last year following 10 years at SAP Concur – said cost factors continued to impact the purchase behaviours of Australians despite international borders relaxing.

Across 11 countries polled, India emerged as the most con­fident, with a clear majority (86 per cent) of Indian travellers stating they intended to travel in the next 12 months, followed closely by Vietnam and China. Australia came in fifth place at 72 per cent.

“Australians are very confident to travel, but the majority are concerned about cost, then flexibility and convenience, followed by safety. The majority of those surveyed said they also wanted to travel domestically,” Ms Houlds­worth said.

The impact of flight cancellations, lost baggage and airport queues, which has caused significant controversy for Qantas and Virgin, was yet to impact the booking behaviour of travellers. “If we look across Europe, we are starting to see some impact with flight cancellations but we are not seeing it here. At the moment, the desire to travel is still overtaking any concerns about disruptions,” she said.

The firm’s research into traveller confidence found Australians were seeking different types of ­accommodation as a result of the pandemic, with more than a third (37 per cent) agreeing their preferences have shifted.

Hotels were still most preferred for accommodation, but the research found 24 per cent of respondents now favoured homes and apartments. This is higher if you include B&Bs and other alternative forms of accommodation.

“Safety is an issue and there is a desire for space, given Australia had some of the longest lockdowns in the world. Australians want accommodation giving them flexibility and space. Part of that also was to reduce their carbon footprint,” Ms Houldsworth said.

A couple vacations in the beautiful city of Paris, France.

She said 60 per cent of Australian travellers wanted to travel “sustainably” in the year ahead, versus 50 per cent last year. “People are feeling the impact of climate change in the past 12 months with the fires and floods we have seen in various states,” she said.

Over the past year as travel has recovered domestically and international, Booking.com has launched new product features on its web site and app, including adding a Travel Sustainable property badge to its platform.

“We know there has to be a world worth experiencing so our accommodation and transport providers are looking at ways to display the work they are doing in the sustainability space.

“By providing the badge, we are giving customers and our accommodation providers the chance to come together,” Ms Houldsworth said.

She said 120,000 properties worldwide had been awarded the badge since it was launched last November.

The NASDAQ-listed firm, which has more than 100 staff in Australia, in May reported gross travel bookings for the March quarter of $US27.3bn, up 129 per cent on a year ago.

It is currently working to build out other verticals in its offering for Australians beyond accommodation bookings, namely flights and activities.

Travellers in Australia can now browse and book flights from a global inventory of airlines on the booking.com app to 40 countries.

While the firm’s primary business continues to be accommodation bookings, Ms Houldsworth said 75 per cent of those booking flights on Booking.com had done so before booking accommodation and other attractions; 25 per cent of flight bookings were new customers to Booking.com.