eTN Asia, 25-10-2006
Australia is trying to understand the reasons behind the decline in the number of domestic overnight trips.Tourism industry in Australia is getting adversely affected as bigger mortgage payments were swallowing an increasing share of the household budget, according to Tourism Research Australia.
The consumers are opting to spend disposable income on high-tech TVs, computers and phones, renovating their homes or upgrading their cars. The study showed nationally the number of domestic overnight trips was down by seven percent, but the number of Australians heading overseas had risen by seven percent.
“What that research also shows is that while individual prosperity levels have been increasing, people are spending more of their own discretionary budgets on the things like plasma TVs and computers etc,” said Federal Tourism Minister Fran Bailey. The Minister says more research will be done to find why the pattern has emerged and how it can be addressed and reasons Australians are spending more money on plasma TVs and super sound systems than on domestic holidays will be the focus of a $200,000 Federal Government study.
“If we are going to be successful in our domestic tourism we have to address why consumer spending patterns have changed,” she said.
“A high proportion of spending on these items is considered discretionary and in direct competition with spending on domestic tourism,” the report An Assessment of the Australian Domestic Tourism Market said. “Stronger increases in spending on these items compared to domestic tourism suggests a shift in popularity away from domestic tourism.”
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