Spoilt by choice : short break holiday preferences in the Brisbane market

Australian short break holidays have received scant attention in the tourism literature, even though this type of holiday has emerged internationally as a significant travel trend in recent years. The paper presents results from the first stage of a longitudinal investigation into short break holiday preferences and behaviour in Queensland. This stage examines some of the characteristics of self-drive short breaks such as importance, frequency, travelling time, preferred destinations, and destination attractiveness attributes. The paper concludes that short breaks represent a significant aspect of holiday behaviour for the sample, drawn from a Brisbane population that is literally spoilt for choice of available destinations within south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales. A feature of the paper is a cross-country comparison of key results with a similar study undertaken in New Zealand, which reveals strong similarities in attitudes towards short breaks. It is suggested therefore the research has implications not only for destinations close to Brisbane, but also for those in other areas.