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Australian Tourists Lead Global Spending on Experiences and Nightlife
Written by Annabel Fuller
For Aussies on holiday, meaningful encounters and adventures take precedence over retail spending.
Australian tourists lead the world in spending on international experiences and nightlife, allocating nearly one-fifth of their holiday budget to the meaningful activities, according to a report on global travel trends by the Mastercard Economics Institute.
The worldwide average sits closer to one-tenth of travel expenditures, standing at 12%.
“There is a difference in preferences when folks from Australia are travelling around, they are doing it more for the experiences: that is more of the preference, rather than the retail therapy,” Mastercard Chief Economist David Mann told the Australian Associated Press.
The Travel Trends 2024: Breaking Boundaries report, released Thursday, is based on a unique analysis of aggregated and anonymised Mastercard transaction data from customers travelling abroad. The data also revealed that over the past year, travellers have extended their holidays by an additional day compared to the same period in 2019.
Australians enjoyed an average holiday length of 5.2 days in 2024, up from 4.6 days before the pandemic.
“This increase in the number of days translates to a greater economic boost for businesses supporting local economies in the travel industry,” the report states, attributing the increase to the affordability of destinations and favourable exchange rates. “For markets such as Thailand, where dependence on tourism is extremely high, these extra days make a significant difference.”
Favourable exchange rates were especially noted for Tokyo, one of the top momentum-gaining destinations for Australian travellers from June to August 2024, with the yen at a 17-year low against the Australian dollar. Tokyo joins Nandi in Fiji and Bali in Indonesia as the top three destinations where demand has surged among Australians.
