Desperate for a mini-break, Aussies book their travel from the office

Interestingly, an additional one quarter of bookings were made between the hours of 8pm and 7am, further reflecting a move away from the traditional lunchtime or Saturday visit to a 'bricks and mortar' travel agent.

Results also indicate that Australians are booking the majority of their trips for a week or less in duration, with 63 percent of return flights and 97 percent of hotel bookings made for stays of a week or less.

According to Peter Smith, ZUJI Australia's General Manager, time poor Australians are using 'work hours' to plan and book their getaways online, but the reality of pressing work deadlines means that holidays they choose tend to be quick breaks, rather than extended trips.  

"The good news for travellers who are going on shorter breaks more often is that booking travel online saves considerable amounts of time. Gone are the days of spending your whole lunch hour lining up at the travel agent. Now it's just a matter of logging onto one-stop travel sites such as ZUJI.com.au, finding the trip that suits your budget and interests, then booking and paying for it while you're at your desk, all in a matter of minutes," said Mr Smith.

Top 10 international city destinations based on zuji.com.au international flight booking trends during Q1 2006 are as follows:

        1.        Auckland, New Zealand
        2.        London, UK
        3.        Singapore
        4.        Hong Kong
        5.        Bangkok, Thailand
        6.        Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
        7.        Bali, Indonesia
        8.        Los Angeles, USA
        9.        Christchurch, New Zealand
        10.       Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

After not ranking at all in Australia's top 20 at Q4 2005, Bali has made an impressive comeback so far this year, ranked as the seventh most popular international destination booked on zuji.com.au in Q1 2006.

The ZUJI Online Travel Report tracks online travel booking trends for flight, hotel and other travel bookings in Asia Pacific. Trends are drawn from actual search and booking data on ZUJI online travel sites across Asia Pacific.