The proportion of Australians planning on taking a holiday has dropped to its lowest point in three years from 73% to 69% in the last 12 months, according to Roy Morgan.
According to the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Holiday Tracking Survey, the recent downturn appears to have been driven by declining domestic holiday intention.
In the July-September 2015 quarter, 73% of the population had a holiday in the pipeline, with 58% reporting that they were planning an Aussie holiday in the coming 12 months. As of the July-September 2016 quarter, total holiday intention had dropped to 69%, and domestic intention was at 55%, the report states.
In contrast, overseas holiday intention is the same as it was a year ago (11%), remaining relatively stable over the last 12 months.
“In the 12 months to September 2016, the proportion of Australians planning a holiday in the next year went from a record high to its lowest point in nearly three years. While it might be tempting to attribute this decline to recent international terrorist activity such as the Bastille Day attack in Nice, Roy Morgan data shows a downturn in domestic rather than overseas intention,” Norman Morris, Industry Communications Director, Roy Morgan Research, said.
Australians intending to take a holiday in the next 12 months
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), July 2006-September 2016, average 3-monthly sample=4,677. Base: Australians 14+
The report takes into account holiday intention variations for different segments of the population, with factors such as current life circumstances and whether they’re based in an urban or rural area considered to have a bearing on results.
Holiday intention is markedly higher among parents of kids aged under 16 (73%) than among Aussies in childless households (68%), with this difference applying to both domestic (58% vs 54%) and overseas (13% vs 11%) holidays.
Meanwhile, ‘Empty nesters’ are above average for overall intention (78%) due to the elevated proportion of them planning a domestic holiday (64%), while older folks (aged 65+) are less likely to have any kind of getaway on the horizon, the report states.
Furthermore, while the same proportion (69%) of Australians living in capital cities and those based in regional areas are planning a holiday, with the former more likely to have an overseas trip on the horizon (12%) than the latter (9%), while the reverse is true of domestic holiday plans (57% of country Australians vs 54% of city-dwellers).
Holiday intention by Helix Persona
Roy Morgan’s consumer-profiling tool Helix Personas breaks down the population into seven Communities comprised of 56 distinct segments (Personas) based on demographics, lifestyle, attitudes, behaviour and values.
The two Personas with the strongest overall holiday intention (at 87% apiece) come from the upwardly mobile end of the spectrum: educated, high-earning ‘Humanitarians’ and the slightly younger, socially aware (but no less well paid) ‘New School Cool’. While neither tops the scale for overseas or domestic intention, elevated proportions of both Personas have international and domestic travel plans – hence their high ratings for overall intention.
“Helix Personas can assist travel and tourism industry players keen to identify those people most likely to travel within Australia on their next trip,” Morris said.
“Regional tourism operators and travel agencies wishing to ensure their marketing campaigns are as strategic and effective as possible stand to benefit from the in-depth, holistic insights Helix Personas can provide.”
Helix Personas most and least likely to be planning a holiday in the next 12 months
Source: Roy Morgan Research (Australia), October 2015-September 2016, n=14,416. Base: Australians 14+
Though the other Personas most likely to be planning a holiday in the next 12 months are distinguished by factors such as age, family circumstances and destination preference, they all belong to the high-value Leading Lifestyles and Metrotech Communities.
Meanwhile, people from the Persona known as Strugglestreet are the least likely group in the country to have any kind of holiday plans in the pipeline. As their name suggests, people on Strugglestreet are often young single parents with little education and a high unemployment rate, their budget doesn’t stretch to holidays.
“Also limited by financial constraints (due to either unemployment or under-employment), Doing It Tough and Coupon Clippers are also among the least likely to be planning a holiday. So too are the ethnically diverse, hard-working families of the Aspiring Immigrants Persona (although this ambitious group may well change their circumstances in the future); and the elderly, retired Frugal Living group, content with their low-key, local lifestyle,” the report states.
