16 June 2017
Flight Centre report offers unique insights into Australian travel trends
My how we’ve travelled – the first commercial flights from Australia to London in the 1940s cost the equivalent of 85 weeks wages, compared to less than one week’s pay today.
Travel has never been more accessible and Aussies have the bug big time, clocking up in excess of 10 billion kilometres of travel over the past year alone – enough to reach Mars and back 70 times.
Australia has emerged as one of the world’s great travelling nations, with a large proportion of adventurers buckling up with the country’s largest travel agency network, Flight Centre Travel Group – producers of a new industry bible on travel trends.
Flight Centre has tapped into its unique data base of millions of customers to produce the Turner Report – named after the company’s entrepreneurial CEO, Graham ‘Skroo’ Turner – offering expert insights into Australian travel patterns, trends and experiences.
The inaugural report Postcodes and Postcards: Australians on the Move in the Golden Age of Travel takes an in-depth look into data relating to geographic locations within Australia, examining who is travelling, patterns and preferences on a region by region basis.
“Australians are on the move more than ever before and we firmly believe this is the Golden Age of Travel,’’ Mr Turner said.
“Aussies are cashing in, with Australian government data showing that outbound travel more than doubled in the 10 years between 2006 and 2016. Flights are becoming more affordable and in 2017 we have advertised some of the cheapest fares we’ve ever seen.
“In addition, airlines are investing significantly in initiatives that will enhance the in-flight experience with touch screen entertainment systems, the latest movies, Wi-Fi and healthy, chef-curated menus more prevalent than ever before,” he said.
The Aussie Traveller
The report reveals the average Australian traveller – and Flight Centre customer – is a 47 year old male who travels for 15 days, plans his trips 56 days in advance and tends to visit Flight Centre stores to enquire in person
While the biggest dollar-droppers are the 50-54 age group, Aussie travellers are falling in love with travel earlier than ever and it appears the gap year is alive and well with Flight Centre customers in the 15-19 age group seeing 40% grow over 2015 to 2016.
Destinations on the rise
Domestic destinations on the rise include Uluru (up 12%) the Sunshine Coast (up 11%) and Cairns (up 10%) while internationally New Caledonia as seen a 42% increase amongst Flight Centre customers, Japan is up 18% on the back of an excellent snow season and Vanuatu is up 17%.
Kilometres per state
Looking at Flight Centre’s Top 10 Destinations only for this past year, Aussies have travelled the equivalent of distance of Mars and back…68 times.
NSW travellers clocked up the most kms travelled across the globe, closely followed by VIC and QLD.
NSW – 3,111+ million km
VIC – 2,619+ million km
QLD – 2,121+ million km
WA – 1,158+ million km
SA – 776+ million km
ACT – 208+ million km
TAS – 167+ million km
NT – 131+ million km
Painting the picture with postcodes
Residents of Sydney’s north – postcode 2060 – are the most travelled Aussies in the country. They have the highest number of bookings in the nation, spend the most and have the second highest change in travel bookings year-on-year.
Other well-travelled postcodes include Brisbane City (4000) and Caloundra (4551) in Queensland, Rouse Hill (2155) in NSW, Werribee (3030) in VIC and Wangara (6065) in W.A.
Movers and shakers
Brisbane travellers in the 4000 postcode are this year’s biggest movers based on year-on-year percentage change (65%) followed by North Sydney (2060) with a 40% increase. Queensland’s Gympie (4570) and Tasmania’s Devonport (7310) both saw a 25% increase in travel sales between 2015 and 2016.
The Turner Report will be produced annually.
ENDS
Media enquiries to: Kellie Carty, Corporate Communications Manager
0432 952 488 or kellie_carty@flightcentre.com