Melbourne is top pick for Australians holidaying
The cities of Hobart, Adelaide and Canberra have all risen in popularity over the last two years.
Although Melbourne has retained its reputation as the city most Aussies want to visit in the next two years, demand for travel to Australia's smaller capitals has increased notably, according to the latest industry survey.
Roy Morgan's Holiday Tracking Survey reveals that in the year to September 2017, over 14.8 million Aussies said they’d like to travel domestically in the next two years, slightly less than the 15.2 million in September 2015.
More than 4.25 million Australians desired to visit Melbourne in 2017, down marginally (-5.2%) from 4.5 million in 2015. Melbourne has held the top ranking position among intending Australian travellers for the last 10 years.
Australia's most populous city, Sydney, comfortably sits in second position in 2017, with around 2.4 million planned visitors over the next two years, down slightly (-5.0%) from 2.5 million in 2015. Darwin (-4.5%) and Perth (-0.6%) also experienced a reduced interest in expectant travellers in 2017.
However, three of Australia's smaller capitals enjoyed some significant gains in popularity since 2015. Hobart was the clear winner with 1.75 million prospective visitors, up substantially (8.7%) from 1.6 million in 2015.
The South Australian capital of Adelaide also experienced a surge of growth in desired travel (6.7%), toppling 1.3 million visitors in 2017, after capturing the attention of around 1.25 million Aussies two years ago.
Canberra, the nation's capital, also saw modest growth (4.1%) in the number of would-be travellers in 2017.
The number of travellers intending to visit Brisbane in the next two years remains unchanged since 2015.
Despite Hobart's growth as a desirable travel destination, younger people, particularly Generation Z (those born between 1991-2005) increased their holiday preferences for all capital cities except Hobart since 2015.
However, the Tasmanian capital is the only city to grow preferences amongst all of the key spending generations over the last two years, including Generation Y, Generation X and Baby Boomers. Canberra and Adelaide saw increases in the number of intending visitors from the three youngest Generations (X, Y & Z).
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