And Australia’s busiest business travel destination is…
When asked whether their last domestic flight was for business or leisure, 2.1 million Australians reported flying for business purposes. Nearly 28% of Aussie business air-travellers flew to (or within) New South Wales, while the Northern Territory (2.8%) and Tasmania (2.4%) were the least trafficked domestic business destinations.
Queensland is the second-most visited state/territory for business, attracting 22.7% of all business travellers; while Victoria is a close third (22.3%), well ahead of Western Australia in fourth position (10.4% of all business travellers).
Domestic business travel destinations: state by state
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), January 2014– December 2015 (n=2,645). Base: Australians 14+ whose last domestic flight was for business purposes
The vast majority of business visitors to NSW are from along the Eastern seaboard. Almost one-third come from south of the border, with 30.0% of them hailing from Melbourne (hardly surprising, given that the Melbourne-Sydney air route is renowned for being one of the busiest in the world), and 2.8% from regional Victoria. Meanwhile, Queenslanders account for 28.9% of all business visitors to NSW: 16.2% from Brisbane and 12.7% from regional areas of the Sunshine State.
Curiously, the largest swathe (24.8%) of Queensland’s business travellers are from within the state (ie Queensland residents travelling intrastate), just ahead of Sydneysiders, who comprise 23.3% of all people who visit the Sunshine State on business. The Sydney-Brisbane route also rates as one of the world’s busiest flight paths.
More than half of Victoria’s business visitors come from NSW (42.1% from Sydney and 9.2% from regional NSW), while the bulk of the ACT’s business visitors come from Melbourne (34.7%) and Sydney (23.8%).
On the other side of the country, Western Australia gets most of its business visitors from intrastate: 46.5% from Perth (due primarily to the state’s large contingent of fly-in fly-out mining industry workers) and 11.4% from regional WA.
Norman Morris, Industry Communications Director, Roy Morgan Research, says:
“Given the vast size of this country, it is understandable that so many Australians travel by air for business purposes. Naturally, competition is fierce between domestic airlines for the business passenger dollar, and while Virgin Australia is currently the leader in terms of customer satisfaction, this fluctuates regularly.
“As we have seen, NSW is the most visited state for domestic business travel, followed by Queensland. This order is reversed for leisure travel: 28.4% of Aussies whose last flight was for holiday purposes flew to Queensland, ahead of 27.2% to NSW.
“Knowing which destinations attract the most business travellers is essential for airlines to ensure they meet the needs of these passengers, providing an adequate number of flights, relevant in-flight facilities and efficient airport service. Local businesses such as taxi companies, hotels and restaurants also stand to benefit from understanding and catering to this important group of travellers.”
For comments or more information please contact:
Roy Morgan - Enquiries
Office: +61 (03) 9224 5309
askroymorgan@roymorgan.com
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 |
