Expedia.com.au reveals Australians’ New Year’s travel resolutions for 2008
Visiting a new and different destination came out tops in a recent poll into Australians’ travel resolutions for 2008, conducted by online travel company www.Expedia.com.au.
Almost two-thirds (64%) of the survey’s 5,000 respondents chose visiting a completely new and different destination as their number one New Year’s travel resolution; interestingly, however, only 4% of respondents chose making all future trips carbon neutral as their number one travel resolution for 2008.
Eastern Europe topped the list (28%) of desired destinations in 2008, with South America coming a close second (24%). While Southeast Asia continues to wane in popularity, with only 16% of respondents choosing this as their destination of choice, Africa is emerging as a popular hot spot, with one in five Australians citing that continent as their destination of choice for 2008 (21%).
When asked what resolution they would aim to keep while travelling, 40% said they aim to “try something adventurous”. One in five respondents said they aim to travel to see a friend they haven’t seen for a long time, while keeping a travel log/blog or trying to speak the local language of a destination also ranked high on the list of what Australians said they would try to adhere to while on their travels in 2008.
However, and as a sign of apparent end-of-year fatigue, the survey showed that what Australians appear to be in need of most right now is some serious R&R. When asked what holiday activity they would like to try, “doing nothing” and “just relaxing” was quoted by almost a third of respondents as their number one travel “activity”. As further evidence of Australians’ apparent state of exhaustion, over 34% chose a relaxing spa holiday as their holiday of choice in 2008.
With a hectic year over, kicking back and relaxing is also reflected in the most popular domestic holiday destinations for 2008. The Whitsunday Islands secured over a third of the vote (35%), while Tasmania came second in the local destination popularity stakes (23%).
When asked what bad travel habits they would like to break, spending over the allocated holiday budget came up as the number one resolution (37%) for 2008. (Surprisingly, over a fifth of respondents said they didn’t have any bad travel habits to break.)
The results of this latest www.Expedia.com.au poll echo the findings of Expedia’s global Vacation Deprivation survey™ released earlier this year, which showed that among the six industrialised countries surveyed, Australians were found to be the worst in the world at taking holidays, with more than a third of employed Australians not taking all of their annual leave.
A Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
Vegas’s Billion-Dollar Secrets – What They Don’t Want Tourists to Know
Visit Florida’s New CEO Bryan Griffin Shares His Vision for State Tourism with Graham
Chicago’s Tourism Renaissance: Graham Interviews Kristin Reynolds of Choose Chicago
Graham Talks with Cassandra McCauley of MMGY NextFactor About the Latest Industry Research
Destination International’s Andreas Weissenborn: Research, Advocacy, and Destination Impact
Graham and Don Welsh Discuss the Success of Destinations International’s Annual Conference
Graham and CEO Andre Kiwitz on Ventura Travel’s UK Move and Recruitment for the Role
Brett Laiken and Graham Discuss Florida’s Tourism Momentum and Global Appeal
Graham and Elliot Ferguson on Positioning DC as a Cultural and Inclusive Global Destination
Graham Talks to Fraser Last About His England-to-Ireland Trek for Mental Health Awareness
Kathy Nelson Tells Graham About the Honour of Hosting the World Cup and Kansas City’s Future
Graham McKenzie on Sir Richie Richardson’s Dual Passion for Golf and His Homeland, Antigua
ADS PRO 
Phocuswright reveals the world's largest travel markets in volume in 2025
Higher departure tax and visa cost, e-arrival card: Japan unleashes the fiscal weapon against tourists
Cyclone in Sri Lanka had limited effect on tourism in contrary to media reports
Singapore to forbid entry to undesirable travelers with new no-boarding directive
Euromonitor International unveils world’s top 100 city destinations for 2025