Sorry Sydneysiders, Melbourne is the most desired holiday location in Australia

Melbourne is the most desired holiday location in Australia, with 4.25 million Aussies indicating they’d like to visit, according to a Roy Morgan survey.

The survey also found that over 14.8 million Australians aged 14 and over in the year to September 2017 would like to travel within Australia in the next two years, as opposed to overseas. This figure is only slightly down from 14.9 million in the previous year.

Survey: Roy Morgan

Melbourne has retained its title as most desired travel spot of all Australian capital cities for the last two years. Sydney has come in second, with just under 2.4 million surveyed Aussies wanting to travel there.

Hobart has seen the strongest growth by would-be-travellers between 2015-2017, growing 8.7 per cent in travel desirability and over taking Brisbane.

Adelaide has also experienced strong growth over the past two years, up to 1.3 million from 1.23 million.

Where each generation wants to travel

Survey: Roy Morgan

Melbourne is the most popular travel destination amongst all the generations in Australia, however it only saw a growth in popularity from 2015-2017 in Generation Z (1991-2005).

Hobart is the only capital city to see growth as the preferred travel destination amongst all of the “key spending generations” over the last two years, Generation Y, Generation X and Baby Boomers.

Roy Morgan CEO, Michele Levine, released a statement discussing the survey results and attributing a recent spike in interest for Hobart to it housing the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA).

“Melbourne has again confirmed its reputation as Australia’s most sought-after capital city travel destination for domestic travellers with over 4.25 million Australians expressing a desire to visit Australia’s (and the World’s according to the Economist Intelligence Unit) most liveable city in the next two years. 

“Although this was down slightly on two years ago, it was enough for Melbourne to be almost 1.9 million potential visitors ahead of Sydney in second place. 

“However, the big improvers in recent years have been Australia’s second tier cities of Hobart, Canberra and Adelaide which have all grown strongly on the Roy Morgan Holiday Tracking Survey since 2015. 

“Hobart, well known as the home of MONA which opened in 2011, has experienced the strongest growth in the minds of Australian holiday-makers since 2015 and has now overtaken Brisbane as Australia’s third most desired holiday destination with 1.74 million Australians expressing a desire for Hobart – up a strong 8.7 per cent in only the last two years. 

“The increasing allure of Hobart is demonstrated by the fact Hobart was the only capital city to experience growth in all three key Generations in the past two years – Generation Y, Generation X and the Baby Boomers and overtaking Brisbane is remarkable when one considers the respective populations of the two cities – Hobart (225,000) is less than a tenth the size of Brisbane (2.36 million). 

“Destination preference amongst Aussies intending to holiday domestically is only one measure that tourism operators and marketers should monitor as it is also vital to keep track of actual holiday intention (as opposed to preference) and visitation – as well as general awareness of current marketing campaigns,” said Ms Levine.

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