The cost of living continues to affect travel plans, with eight out of 10 (83%) Australian travellers looking to reduce their travel costs in the next 12 months, according to a report commissioned by Southern Cross Travel Insurance (SCTI).
Despite this, the desire to travel remains high. The report, called the Future of Travel 2024, also found that 91% of respondents planned to travel domestically or overseas in the next year.
The average international trip length desired has also risen from 14 days in 2023 to 16 days per trip in 2024 – however, this is balanced out by a reduction in the average number of trips that respondents plan to take.
Almost half of Aussies (47%) also said that they consider travel to be more important than other discretionary spending items, and one in five (21%) said that it was their top priority, or much more important to them than other discretionary spending.
Millennials (born 1981–96) are the most unwilling to forgo travel, with 17% claiming travel was their top priority for discretionary spending, compared with between 4–6% for other age demographics. Additionally, 90% of millennials stated that they were willing to make trade-offs to reduce the cost of travel in the next year.
Many Aussies would drop insurance to cut costs
Concerningly, the report also found that 2.4 million Australians were willing to cut costs by not buying travel insurance – with Generation Z (born 1997–2012) twice as likely to do so than baby boomers (born 1946–64).
This is despite a high level of travel disruption in 2023 – a year in which 2.8 million Australians faced problems due to a weather event. Travellers from New South Wales (NSW) in particular were four times as likely as Queenslanders to have experienced an adverse weather event before or during overseas travel (13% compared with 3%). This is despite a similar number of people travelling from both states.
SCTI also reported that the average claim cost for international travel in 2023 was A$1,369 (US$897), while the average claim for domestic travel was A$1,163.
SCTI also recently won two awards at the 2023 Canstar Travel Insurance Awards.
Source: itij.com
George Barham, an accomplished journalist and avid gambling enthusiast, serves as the esteemed Editor-in-Chief at fly-to-australia.com, Australia’s leading source for comprehensive gambling news and insights. With an unwavering passion for both the written word and the ever-evolving world of betting and gaming, George brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the helm of our editorial team.
