In December, 67.6% (13.94 million) of Australians said they intended to take a holiday in the next 12 months – a 1.8% drop from the same time last year.

That’s according to the latest Roy Morgan Leading Indicator Holiday Travel Intention, December 2018 report.

It seems most Australians are choosing not to holiday within Australia, with a 2.5% drop in domestic holiday intentions. Just 52% of Australians said their next holiday would be a domestic one, down from 54.3% from the same time last year.

Just 54.6% of Australians said they had a short-term holiday (one or two nights) planned within the next twelve months – down from 58.7% a year ago.

Unsurprisingly, Millennials and GenX were the big holidaymakers, with 72.6% and 72.5% respectively intending to take a holiday within the next year.

Baby Boomers represent the third biggest market, with 66.3% intending to go on holiday within the next year. Meanwhile, Pre-Boomers were the generation opting to stay at home, with only 50.6% reporting any holiday plans.

Norman Norris, Industry Communications Director at Roy Morgan said the findings show people’s travel plans are being impacted by a range of factors, like a lack of wage growth.

“The travel industry, like other sectors of the economy, is now facing a number of real challenges that have the potential to negatively impact their market. These include concerns about the slowing economy, lack of wage growth, energy price escalation, declining home values, superannuation changes and political uncertainty with a potential change of government,” he said.

He adds these factors are producing a “negative wealth effect” which could make consumers feel less likely to spend money on discretionary items like travel.

Mr Norris said generational differences only have a small part to play in people’s ability to travel.

“Holiday intentions are obviously closely related to socio economic status but this release has highlighted the need to understand the influences of other factors of which generational differences are only one.”

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Photo by Esmee Holdijk on Unsplash