With the Australian Open over and the Superbowl about to kick off, leisure travel for sporting events is trending up with 42 per cent of Millennials and Gen Z Aussies saying they’d embark on a holiday that involves a major sporting competition aka a ‘sportscursion’.
According to new Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) research, there’s a clear gender divide with 23 per cent of men keen on a sportscursion-style trip versus nine per cent of women.
When it comes to sports that inspire travel, football (soccer) ranks the highest on the scorecard with half of respondents (50%) followed by a multi-sport event (38%), tennis (36%) and Formula 1 (23%).
The findings follow Corporate Traveller data that saw bookings for the Australian Open 2024 up 21 per cent among business travellers year-on-year.
During Australia’s co-hosting of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, Booking.com reported search demand for Brisbane and Sydney rose 200 per cent month-on-month during the tournament.
FCTG Global Leisure CEO James Kavanagh said: “Our research shows there’s a huge appetite for people to combine their love of travel with their love of live sport and 2024 is set to offer up a slew of sporting goodness at home and abroad.”
“From the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix to the Matilda’s qualifying match in Melbourne, the T20 World Cup and, of course, the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, there are so many reasons for sports fans to jump on a plane and make a holiday of their favourite event this year.”
