travel.com.au sees 86% surge in overall winter escape bookings

With the first two weeks in July delivering the coldest Sydney day in 21 years, the coldest day in QLD for 13 years and the coldest day in Melbourne for nine years, travel.com.au says people have been drawn to their computers in search of sunshine.

In the first two weeks of July, bookings to overseas sunny destinations have gone through the roof increasing as much as 200% on the same period last year. Bookings to:

- Malaysia increased
- Kuala Lumpur increased 250%
- Bali increased 200%
- Thailand increased 28%
- Honolulu increased 20%*

A similar trend is happening within Australia with bookings to the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, Cairns and Darwin increasing as much as 100% on the same period last year.

The most popular domestic destinations booked on travel.com.au include:

- Brisbane
- Gold Coast
- Cairns
- Darwin
- Townsville
- Sunshine Coast
- Hamilton Island

Managing director of travel.com.au Adam Johnson says, “With the recent cold snap, we’re finding that people simply aren’t coping and are really keen to just get away from it all! I haven’t seen such a huge influx of people making travel plans to follow the sun in years.”