Sunshine State stays top of mind for school holiday traffic
Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Cairns top the lists for both domestic and international travellers
With the September school holidays almost upon us, Expedia Group has been busy crunching numbers and analysing data to shed some light on the most popular holiday destinations in the lead up to the break.
Resultant data shows travel remains squarely at the forefront of Australian minds, and in what represents good news for hotel partners, length of stay remains solid with five nights for international travellers and four for domestic travellers.
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Queensland remains top of the domestic holiday wish list with the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Cairns featuring in the top five most popular destinations along with Sydney and Melbourne.
Expedia Group’s data also saw the three Sunshine State locations feature among the top five ‘most searched’ destinations with Melbourne again making the cut but Sydney being overlooked for Bali.
From an international travel perspective, the data shows as international visitation once again returns to Australia’s shores, Sydney, Melbourne, the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Cairns are proving the places go to.
And where are our international visitors coming from?
According to the data the top five inbound markets intending to come to Australia during the September school holiday period are Germany, the US, New Zealand, Singapore and the UK.
Expedia Group Director, Account Management, Jamie Griego said there had been green shoots for a traveller return to inner city escapes, but it was great for city-based hoteliers to see this come further to fruition.
“While our regional destinations in Australia continue to shine, it’s great to see Sydney and Melbourne, our two largest city centres, coming back into the top five,” he said.
“The slow but sure return from international travellers heading to Australia is also proving more optimistic with what feels like new and key markets coming through once again.
“At a time where all historic data on guests from hoteliers has become less relevant we’ve also been focused on ensuring that our free Expedia Group partner tools provides hoteliers with the latest insights to help them drive maximum profits and recover as quickly as possible.”
Mike Parker-Brown is a UK-trained and qualified journalist and an award-winning travel communicator with more than 30 years experience.
Since 2002, Mike has worked as a freelance writer and PR consultant providing his services to major organisations in Australia and internationally in the tourism, aviation, hospitality, recruitment and export marketing sectors.
