Research by Roy Morgan says that Australians are flying overseas ever more for holidays while the domestic tourism sector struggles.
The report says that this will continue, anticipating that domestic tourism may be in for a tough time.
Over the past year Australians have increased their spending travelling overseas from $11.6 to 19.8 billion ($8.2 billion increase) while the amount spent by Australians on holidays within Australia has increased only $2.8 billion to $30.1 billion.
The trend shows that Australians understand that when the Aussie dollar is riding high on the resources boom, they should get travelling overseas where it is ‘cheaper’.
That alone takes dollars out of the domestic tourism industry.
But it also makes our tourism expensive for the mainly US and Uk tourists who, the research shows, would love to vist Australia.
The high dollar makes their domestic component more expensive, and that is compounded by a lack of really competitive air fares to Australia. The discount air fare wars in the northern hemisphere are having a major impact on their tourism (booming) and ours (struggling, despite Laura Bingle telling them they should bloody well come here in the TV ads).
Report by The Mole
