Regional destinations take on cities as they bid for visitors

Sydney, 17 June 2003: Visitation to regional destinations is becoming increasingly popular, according to Australia’s largest online travel company, Flairview Travel.

Compared with the same period last year (May-June), the company has seen a 218% increase in regional bookings on their online accommodation booking site HotelClub.com.au.

HotelClub has almost 2 million visitors per month, from all over the world, and offers accommodation in 76 cities across Australia. Of the 700 Australian hotels available on the site, 56% are outside of capital cities.

Ms Chloe Lim, Flairview Travel’s marketing director, said: “While the site is still reporting increasing numbers of visitors to the capital cities, the rise in regional visitation is substantial. We believe it indicates a distinct change in domestic booking patterns, which is great for regional economies.

“The rise in domestic travel as a whole, due to recent world events, has had a flow on effect for our regional markets. It’s also encouraging that the average visitor is staying in regional destinations for two to three nights.

Some key regional destinations have experienced significant increases in visitation on the site over the last three months. In particular, booking numbers to areas like Port Douglas have climbed as much as 322% followed by the Blue Mountains (310%), Alice Springs (211%) and Port Stephens (200%).

Other strong regional centres for bookings include Townsville, Coffs Harbour, Newcastle, Wollongong, Port Macquarie, Whitsunday Islands, Kakadu National Park and Margaret River.

HotelClub Regional Top 5 Destinations (Booking Numbers)
1. Sunshine Coast
2. Port Douglas
3. Ayres Rock
4. Blue Mountains
5. Alice Springs

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For further information, please contact Nicole Reading or Lisa Pickard
(02) 9231 1103/[email protected].

HotelClub is Australia’s largest online accommodation provider. A full accommodation provider, HotelClub is a “full service” website offering hotel bookings for up to 12 months ahead. It offers a choice of over 6,000 hotels – at savings of up to 60% – in 36 countries and 750 cities worldwide. HotelClub. a global online travel/accommodation service and features its services in seven languages, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian and Japanese and Spanish. Its head office is in Sydney and customer and product offices in France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Russia Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Personal and corporate memberships to HotelClub are available that provide additional discounts and services.