Travel agents to close as Victoria enters Stage 4 Restrictions
More permanent travel agency closures appear inevitable after the Victorian government ordered all non-essential retailers to shut their doors from Thursday for six weeks as part of its onerous Stage 4 Restrictions. Victorian Premier Daniel More ...
Superhero sunset on social media rescues Gympie’s daggy reputation
Fabulous story on the ABC website about how the power of celebrity, social media and stunning imagery from the Hemsworth bothers, Liam and Chris, combined to change the focus on the previously daggy Gympie region More ...
Palmy is back baby! Holiday house shortage looms as demand booms
Property managers predict this winter will be the busiest ever for Sydney's northern beaches holiday house market as cooped up Sydneysiders make the area their weekend playground. They also report Christmas bookings are being made More ...
Aircraft a bigger virus risk than cruise ships say consumers
It hardly seems possible, but despite all the adverse publicity about cruising and COVID, travellers across Asia-Pacific except Japan consider flying to be the riskier proposition. More than a third (37%) of respondents to a More ...
Indigenous tourism business model challenged by int’l travel bans
Indigenous tourism - a star performer over the past decade - is among the hardest hit sectors of the Australia's travel industry from COVID border restrictions with a new report revealing its heavy dependence on More ...
Short-term rentals outperform hotels across 27 markets during COVID
Short-term rentals have been much more popular than "traditional hotels" throughout the COVID pandemic, recording significantly higher occupancy rates between March and June, according to the preliminary findings of a joint analysis across 27 global More ...
Domestic air traffic increases at Sydney Airport after hitting rock bottom
Last June 3.4 million passengers either arrived or departed from Sydney Airport, Australia's busiest aviation gateway. This June, that number had collapsed to just 174,000 - a precipitous decline of 95%. Most were domestic travellers: More ...
125 Helloworld franchisees close shop, business raises $50m
Helloworld has revealed that 125 of its franchise travel agencies have closed their shops due to the impact of COVID over the past few months. The Australia and New Zealand retail chain - ASX code More ...
US OTAs Airbnb, Agoda, Booking and Expedia form Asian lobby group with no Asian members
Booking Holdings, Airbnb and the Expedia Group have formed a regional lobby group called the Asia Travel Technology Industry Association, but it would appear there is something missing. No Asian-owned companies are listed as members More ...
Indian hospitality at tech tipping point says new report from RMS
Technology will play a key role in the long road to recovery from the COVID crisis for India’s hospitality industry, according to a comprehensive new report, Indian Hospitality at Tech Tipping Point, produced by RMS More ...
Airbnb’s Australian web traffic halved by international travel ban
International border closures by the Federal Government are the obvious reason for a for a 50% drop in the number of monthly visits to Airbnb's Australian website between January and June, 2020, based on data More ...
Special Report – short term rentals bounce back, Byron Bay leads the way
It was like a car smash in which the driver and passengers were battered and bruised but managed to escape the wreck, hobbling away with a new resolve to make the most of every day More ...