AUSTRALIANS have the overseas travel bug - tempted, it seems, by the surging local dollar. According to Roy Morgan research to be released today, our overseas travel intentions are at a record high.
About 12.9 million Australians intend to take a holiday in the year ahead, with about 10 per cent of those travellers planning to go abroad - up from 9 per cent in the January quarter of 2010 and the highest level of intention for overseas travel since the recurring holiday-tracking survey started in April 2000.
''Overseas holiday intention varies with the cost of an overseas holiday compared to a domestic one; and instantly with the very strong Australian dollar, it's very hard for domestic destinations to compete,'' Roy Morgan's Jane Ianniello said. ''The USA … has especially seen quite a large increase in [Australian] people intending to take a holiday.''
Advertisement: Story continues below As the Australian dollar this week soared to levels not seen since it was floated in December 1983 (yesterday, it breached the $US1.04 mark), the Roy Morgan survey, involving 19,000 Australians, also showed a surge in interest for destinations including the US, Hawaii, Canada and Britain. The most popular destinations for those planning to travel abroad are New Zealand, Britain and the US.
Meanwhile, domestic travel is softening. About 57 per cent of Australian travellers still plan to make their next holiday a domestic trip, but that level of intention is the lowest since 2006, according to the survey.
Despite a higher Australian dollar making overseas travel cheaper, the exchange rate is not the major consideration in a consumer's choice of destination. Flight Centre's general manager of marketing, Colin Bowman, said the major consideration was the cost of the airfare.
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