Australia's favourite luxury holidays amid record-breaking travel boom
More than 12,000 votes decided the winners.
Australian travel company Luxury Escapes has released its inaugural travel awards, at a time when Australia is enjoying a record-breaking travel boom.
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Residents returned from almost two million short trips overseas in July 2024, up 10.4 per cent on the year before, the Australian Bureau of Statistics found.
Luxury Escapes surveyed more than 12,000 of its members about their favourite luxury holiday destinations and experiences to create the 2024 LuxList:
- Most loved Family-Friendly Escape: Disney Cruise Line Cruises
- Most Inclusion-Packed Escape: Intercontinental Hayman Island
- Most loved Bucket List Escape: Finland and Norway Northern Lights
- Most loved Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean
- Most loved Destination: Maldives
- Most loved Luxury Escape: Grand Hyatt Bali
Luxury Escapes co-founder and CEO Adam Schwab said the LuxList awards showcase the finest in travel experiences and luxurious destinations that have captured the hearts of Luxury Escapes members.
"Over half of the voters ranked Finland and Norway's Northern Lights as their ultimate bucket-list getaway, while more than 30 per cent named the Maldives as their most loved destination," Mr Schwab said.
"Bali continues to shine, with the Grand Hyatt Bali earning the title of the most loved Luxury Escape. This aligns with our recent travel data, which highlights Indonesia as the top outbound destination for Australian travellers in 2024."
The awards follow UK travel publication Conde Nast Traveller releasing its 2024 readers' choice awards in October, declaring Sydney the best city in the world to visit.
Responses from 125,000 readers across the UK named Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island the 29th-best hotel in the world, and the only Australian hotel among the top 50.
The Fullerton Hotel Sydney was named the best hotel in Australasia, with Park Hyatt Sydney coming in second, Halcyon House at Cabarita Beach, NSW, in third place, Osborn House in Bundanoon, NSW in ninth place and The Langham Melbourne in 10th.
The Australian travel industry is experiencing record-breaking growth and is expected to inject $265 billion into the Australian economy in 2024, representing about 10 per cent of the country's GDP, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
In 2023, jobs in Australia's travel and tourism sector surged by nearly 10 per cent from the previous year, hitting 1.42 million and representing a tenth of the national workforce, according to the WTTC's 2024 Economic Impact Research report.
Over the next decade, the sector is expected to support over two million jobs, representing 12 per cent of all Australian employment, the report said.
My all-time favourite destination is ... Cornwall. From the giant seagulls to the blustery beaches, Cornish pasties and fishing villages, it stirs something romantic and seafaring in me.
Next on my bucket list is … Mongolia. I want to go somewhere really unique that feels totally foreign and challenges my way of life.
My top travel tip is … Don’t plan too much. Walk the streets and let it happen. And make sure you check out what’s within a few blocks of your hotel - sometimes the best local food is found that way.
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