More and more Australians are holidaying overseas at the expense of the traditional Aussie holiday, new data shows.
Tourism Research Australia today released its Travel by Australians report giving a snapshot of domestic tourism in the 12 months to June 30 and outbound travel in the 12 months to March 31.
It shows Australians took 72.2 million trips of one or more nights in their own country - two per cent down from the equivalent period of 2007.
Holidays also were shorter, with 280 million nights away showing a three per cent decline from the preceding period.
But 500,000 more Aussies took advantage of a strong Aussie dollar and flocked overseas, bringing the total number of overseas trips to five million.
They spent an average of 21 nights abroad, and the most popular destinations were New Zealand (17 per cent), USA and Canada (11 per cent) and the UK (eight per cent).
However, the news was not all bad, as those choosing an Australian getaway were forking out more money.
Such holiday-makers spent $44.7 billion - a four per cent rise from $43.8 billion.
And while there were fewer daytrippers, they spent $14.1 billion - up from $13.9 billion.
The increases saw the total economic value of the industry rise by three per cent, or $2 billion, to $64.6 billion.
Most domestic holiday-makers chose to remain in their own state, while 33 per cent went interstate.
NSW recorded the most visitor nights (29 per cent), followed by Queensland (27 per cent) and Victoria (19 per cent).
But tourists spent the most in Queensland ($12.6 billion), followed by NSW ($12.4 billion).
More than half of all vacation money was spent in regional areas. Among the cities, Melbourne and Sydney attracted the highest spend of $4.8 billion each.
Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF) executive director Olivia Wirth said falling domestic tourism numbers were of concern.
"This is a worrying trend, sparked in part by the increasing number of Australians choosing to holiday overseas rather than at home, economic pressures and the growing tendency to take shorter breaks," she said.
"Increasing fuel prices are adding to the bottom line of travellers."
Ms Wirth said she hoped Tourism Australia's upcoming marketing campaign, piggybacking on Baz Luhrmann's epic movie Australia, would show Aussies what they were missing out on at home.
