TTF: School Holiday Travellers stay close to Home

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Capital city residents have played it safe largely travelling to destinations within driving distance from home for the July school holidays according to analysis conducted by DSpark for the Tourism and Transport Forum.

The analysis used telco, public transport, road network and ABS Census data to monitor movements of residents of our capital cities in real time for the period Saturday, July 4 through to Saturday, July 18 who travelled more than 50 kilometres from their place of residence.

Tourism and Transport Forum Chief Executive Margy Osmond said that in the first holiday period since leisure travel restrictions had been lifted the results showed that car was king as people’s fears about the COVID 19 outbreak in Victoria heightened.

“The top destinations in all states are within driving range from people’s homes but unsurprisingly are still popular tourism hotspots frequented by capital city dwellers.

“We have said previously that as people started to travel again once restrictions were eased it would be about the road trip initially as people do perceive travelling in their own car as the safest place to be and the outbreak in Victoria and a spike in cases in some areas of Sydney are cause for significant concern.

“What is pleasing however is that many of these areas were victims of the catastrophic bushfires over the summer holiday period and the return of tourists will be largely welcomed by locals to inject money into their suffering local economies.”

DSpark Country Head Paul Rybicki said the data provided an accurate and real time picture of the movements of Australians over the period and that it was great to see people travelling again and frequenting some of these popular destinations.

“Our analysis shows us that Australian tourism is moving in the right direction. Whilst the majority of travel consists of short weekend trips by intrastate visitors, the general increases in vehicular travel by this group and interstate travellers to key holiday destinations is the first step on the path to recovery. As borders open and Australians become more comfortable travelling, we hope to see further upward trends in volume, frequency and number of destinations visited.’ Mr Rybicki said.

In NSW the top destination was the Shoalhaven area encompassing Berry and the Kangaroo Valley in the north and the beautiful Hyams Beach in the South. Not surprisingly Brisbanites flocked to the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast with seven out of the top ten destinations located in these tourist favourites.

The Mornington Peninsula featuring well known destinations like Sorrento and Portsea was popular with Melbournians, despite the city going into lockdown midway through the week, while the Fleurieu Peninsula, including Kangaroo Island and McLaren Vale, was the region most visited by Adelaide residents.

The Augusta-Margaret River area was the first choice for Perth residents while in Tasmania people who live in Hobart chose the South East Coast area where you will find the scenic beauty of Wineglass Bay and the historic Port Arthur.

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