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Results of a new survey from the University of Sydney Business School are good news for Australian tourism operators, finding around half the respondents (54 per cent) are planning at least one domestic trip to treat themselves in the new year.
Further, nearly 28 per cent of Australians are planning international trips to visit family and friends, and about 30 per cent are planning to take an international trip for fun, according to the Transport Opinion Survey.
The survey, which had a pool of 1,000 respondents and was conducted in September 2021 by the University of Sydney Business School’s Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS) predicts a surge in domestic and international travel once border restrictions come down.
“It seems clear that there will be a surge in domestic and international travel once the domestic and international borders are opened again and when hotel quarantine is no longer mandated,” ITLS founding director Professor David Hensher said.
According to the survey, in the following 12 months each Australian resident plans to take, on average, 1.03 domestic trips to visit family and friends and 0.84 trips to travel within Australia to treat themselves. On average, each Australian also plans to take 0.72 international trips to visit family or friends or treat themselves.
Travel intentions differ state-by-state, with residents in New South Wales and Queensland having the highest levels of interest to undertake domestic trips for leisure and catching up with family and friends, mainly by car and air.
NSW residents also had the highest interest in international travel to visit family and friends, with 30 percent planning a trip in the next year.
Meanwhile, those in Victoria are slightly less interested in conducting trips internationally or domestically to visit family or friends, but they are just as interested as conducting domestic business trips as their counterparts in NSW and QLD.
“This evidence is an encouraging sign of a slow but positive recovery in tourism travel out of lockdown in the states most affected, although there are worrying signs for the recovery of domestic business travel,” Professor Hensher said.
In addition to findings regarding Australians’ intentions to travel, the survey took the temperature on a range of transport-related matters, including opinions on infrastructure, public transport, and electric cars.
Other findings of the Transport Opinion Survey include:
- Public transport is the highest priority for transport (24 per cent), down from 29 per cent in March 2021
- 62 per cent said transport in their local areas is the same as one year ago
- There is a slightly higher level of confidence about local transport in the short-term, with 16 per cent saying that transport in their local area would be better in one year’s time, up from 15 per cent in March 2021
- Australians have more confidence about transport in Australia in the longer-term, with 35 per cent saying that transport will be better in five years’ time
- Over half (53 per cent) of potential new car buyers (63.8 per cent) are considering electric cars
- The purchase intention of electric cars is the highest in NSW at 55.9 per cent, and the lowest in WA at 46.5 per cent
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