Australians’ overseas travel wanderlust continues to grow despite low levels of consumer confidence
The latest Roy Morgan data reveals 23% of Australians plan to travel overseas in the next 12 months, up from 16% in October 2022 when final pandemic-era restrictions on travel were lifted.
However, domestic travel continues to be at the heart of how Australians travel with 57% of Australians planning a domestic trip in the next 12 months (up from 52% a year ago).
Typically, when consumer confidence is high, or increasing, travel and travel intentions also increase. However, this pattern was disrupted during the pandemic – when travel and travel plans were put on hold despite strong consumer confidence.
Since October 2022, travel intentions have bounced back despite low levels of consumer confidence.
Chart 1: Consumer Confidence and Australians’ travel intentions in the next 12 months
Source: Roy Morgan, Consumer Confidence (Monthly): Oct-18-Dec’24; Roy Morgan, Single Source (Rolling Quarters) : Oct18-Dec24 Base: Australians aged 14+.
Australians’ growing intention to travel overseas is also reflected in the most recent ABS data on Overseas Arrivals and Departures released in mid-March. The ABS data, that is based on trips (rather than people), shows that overseas travel essentially stopped during the pandemic, and gradually returned once COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.
In calendar year 2024 Australians embarked on 11.5 million overseas trips, rebounding to above 2019 pre-pandemic levels. Looking month-on-month, in January 2024, the number of trips were back to 2019 levels and by January 2025 trips were up 11% on January 2024.
It’s important to note that the growth in trips was largely driven by population growth, so on a ‘per capita basis’, overseas travel has not quite returned to pre-pandemic levels. Australia’s population increased by almost 1.9 million people between 2019 and September 2024 (latest ABS figures).
Chart 2: Australian resident departures, % of 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Overseas Arrivals and Departures, January 2025.
Roy Morgan Head of Travel & Tourism Adele Labine-Romain commented:
“Australians have always possessed a deep-seated wanderlust, and these figures confirm our enduring passion for travel. While economic factors and confidence levels have certainly been influencing travel decisions for some, the desire to explore remains strong showing a promising future for travel.
“While the percentage of Australians intending to take a holiday overseas continues to increase – now at 5.2 million (23% of Australians, up 5 percentage points from a year ago), domestic travel pursuits remain the mainstay of how Australians travel whether discovering new places or returning to familiar spots, with 13.0 million Australians planning a domestic holiday (57% of Australians) over the next 12 months.”
These latest travel intention data come from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey, derived from in-depth interviews with over 60,000 Australians each year.
For comments or more information about Roy Morgan’s travel and tourism sector data please contact:
Roy Morgan Enquiries
Office: +61 (3) 9224 5309
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About Roy Morgan
Roy Morgan is Australia’s largest independent Australian research company, with offices in each state, as well as in the U.S. and U.K. A full-service research organisation, Roy Morgan has over 80 years’ experience collecting objective, independent information on consumers.
Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
