Time-poor Australians favour shorter luxury breaks over overseas trips, survey reveals

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 9 years ago

Time-poor Australians favour shorter luxury breaks over overseas trips, survey reveals

By Jamie Freed
Loading

Cash-rich but time-poor Australians are increasingly favouring luxurious long weekends away closer to home rather than long-haul overseas trips.

The 2015 Australian Luxury Travel Survey, commissioned by travel agent network Virtuoso and Queensland resort qualia has found two-thirds of the 2500 well-to-do respondents were taking more two to four day breaks and spending them in domestic luxury holiday destinations than they were five years ago.

"I think what is happening is unfortunately we are all getting busier and life is more complicated," Virtuoso managing director Asia-Pacific Michael Londregan said. "Wealthy people are definitely getting this feeling like their greatest non-renewable resource is time. And they are getting burnt out and they are struggling to make long-term plans."

Perfect micro-luxury break: Queensland resort qualia.

Perfect micro-luxury break: Queensland resort qualia.

He said a client might ideally want to go to the south of France, but only has four days to spare and so the realistic option is a domestic or trans-Tasman trip that can offer a similar feeling of relaxation.

"I think for a long time in Australia, people really felt that if I really wanted a high quality of delivery I had to leave," Mr Londregan said. "We're really lucky now with places like Southern Ocean Lodge [in South Australia], the lodge product in New Zealand, Wolgan Valley [in NSW]. These places are really providing Aussies with the chance to have what we call the micro-luxury break."

The number of domestic tourists at Hamilton Island in Queensland increased by 5.1 per cent last year. Hamilton Island chief executive Glenn Bourke said for many of the travellers on two to four day breaks, the cost simply isn't an issue. "The majority [are] willing to spend big to ensure each getaway is memorable," he said.

Mr Londregan said the average duration of trips were declining while at the same time, average spending was rising, with domestic trips averaging four to eight days and overseas trips between two and three weeks. But the survey found 60 per cent of Australians no longer define luxury based on price. He said in this market, luxury attributes now included personalisation, authenticity, connectivity.

"I think the idea of boasting about the opulence of a place is not cool," he said. "So where you get your 'home cool' from is when you can talk about experiences that sound genuine and real. So when someone says I went to Antarctica with Lindblad Expeditions where we learnt about the penguins and then we saw them, that is cool. Saying I stayed at a place with $1 million artwork in the lobby is not cool."

Advertisement

He said the definition of luxury differed by market, with travellers from Asian countries still tending to prefer expensive brand names and Americans falling somewhere in the middle between the Australian and Asian view.

Mr Londregan said for the surveyed market, of which 46 per cent allocate $10,000 to $30,000 a year for luxury travel spending, the fall in the Australian dollar was unlikely to have a major impact on their choice of overseas destinations.

"They are driven by their wealth," he said. "If the stock portfolio is going well and their house went up in value, it really won't matter that the dollar moved 5 per cent. They feel 20 per cent wealthier."

But he said the lower dollar might affect spending once they arrived to a destination. "If the Aussies are in America when it is dollar for dollar and they see a $US85 bottle of wine, they go that is $85, I will have it," Mr Londregan said. "If it is US50c they'll find the $US45 bottle of wine."

Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter

Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.

Most viewed on Traveller

Loading