‘Revenge travel’ on the rise as Aussies take the plunge

International travel is officially back, with Australians desperate to embrace the world after two years of closed borders.

MS Trollfjorden Norwegian cruise ship. At the end of a sunny day, just before the rain came in. Trollfjorden lived up to its name and looked magical in the light. Source: Supplied

International travel is officially back, with Australians desperate to embrace the world after two years of closed borders.

And The Weekend Australian Magazine is leading the way, taking readers to locations we could only, until recently, dream of visiting in The International Travel Issue.

The travel surge has seen some teething problems, with delays, lost baggage and even stranded passengers following last-minute cancellations.

But bad publicity isn’t stopping Australians from booking overseas getaways, with data from international booking site Webjet showing the 10 most popular destinations booked in the past 30 days are a combination of short-haul and long-distance destinations.

A visitor hands a banana to an orang-utan at Tanjung Harapan, located inside Tanjung Puting National Park on the island of Borneo, in Kalimantan, Indonesia.

The top destinations are Auckland, Bali, Queenstown, Fiji and London, followed by Singapore, Los Angeles, Bangkok, Manila and New York.

The most popular destinations for national flag carrier Qantas – which has borne the brunt of bad publicity – are London and Rome, with destinations in the United Kingdom, United States and Singapore also strong.

Closer to home, Fiji is another popular destination, just a short three-hour flight from Brisbane or just under five hours from ­Melbourne.

In the week commencing July 4, Flight Centre saw almost 50 per cent of online inquiries about travel to Fiji, followed by Indonesia (18 per cent), the United States (8.1 per cent) and Vanuatu (4 per cent).

Flight Centre general manager Brent Novak told The Australian that Australians were currently booking “revenge travel”.

Venice’s famous Canal Grande with Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute in beautiful golden evening light at sunset.

“We expect the trend for travel across the northern hemisphere to continue throughout the northern summer as steady volumes of Flight Centre customers continue to book revenge travel,” Mr Novak said.

“Our customers have had to put a wide range of holidays, ­family reunions and special events on hold over the last two years and are now booking these long-awaited trips,” he said.

Virgin Australia has seen ­leisure volumes surpass those in 2019, including a 30 per cent increase in demand for flights to Bali this school holiday period compared to the same period in 2019.