Holiday road circles home

Travelling Aussies sticking to state

THREE in four Aussies planning to travel over summer will do so within their own state or territory, new research commissioned by the Tourism and Transport Forum has revealed.

Just 12 per cent of respondents to the online survey of 2300 people said they planned to visit another state capital over Christmas and New Year, although that proportion was slightly higher for Victorians ( 13 per cent) and decidedly lower for West Australians ( 7 per cent).

About one in four respondents ( 26 per cent) said they would not be travelling because of coronavirus restrictions.

The research comes just a day before Queensland opens borders completely to NSW and Victoria, and South Australia opens its border to Victoria.

Travel into WA remains restricted for all, while South Australians cannot get into Tasmania without going into quarantine, although Premier Peter Gutwein has flagged a possible change to this policy soon.

The research, conducted by Sydneybased agency MI, also showed a big majority ( 70 per cent) of Aussies intending to travel said they would do so using their car, with 10 per cent saying they’d use a hire car.

Just 15 per cent of respondents nationally said they intended to fly.

But recent border announcements have led to a surge in interstate airline bookings, with Virgin Australia reporting its single biggest day of bookings since the start of the COVID- 19 pandemic last Wednesday when Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the opening of the state’s border to Victoria from December 1.

Of all bookings around 75 per cent were to the Sunshine State.

A Virgin spokeswoman said that since the Queensland reopening announcements, bookings had been about 50 per cent higher than normal.

Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond said many people were choosing to stay in their home state to avoid any hassles from possible future border closures.