The Maldives is Australia's most popular luxury destination according to thousands of votes in Luxury Escapes' inaugural travel awards.
Luxury Escapes surveyed over 12,000 of its members about their favorite luxury vacation destinations and experiences, to create the LuxList 2024, as follows:
- Most popular family getaway: Disney Cruise Line Cruises
- The richest escape in inclusion: Hayman Intercontinental Island
- Most Popular Bucket List Escape: Northern Lights of Finland and Norway
- Most popular cruise line: Royal Caribbean
- Most popular destination: Maldives
- Most popular luxury getaway: Grand Hyatt Bali
Luxury Escapes co-founder and CEO Adam Schwab said the LuxList awards highlight the best travel experiences and luxurious destinations which have captured the hearts of Luxury Escapes members.
“More than half of voters ranked the Northern Lights in Finland and Norway as their ultimate getaway destination, while more than 30 percent named the Maldives as their top destination,” Schwab said.
“Bali continues to shine, with Grand Hyatt Bali taking the title of Most Loved Luxury Escape. This aligns with our recent travel data, which highlights Indonesia as the top overseas destination for Australian travelers in 2024.”
Awards follow UK travel post Condé Nast Traveler releasing its 2024 Readers' Choice Awards in October, stating Sydney the best city in the world to visit.
Responses from 125,000 readers across the UK named Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island on 29th-best hotel in the world and the only Australian hotel in the top 50.
The Fullerton Hotel Sydney was named the best hotel in Australasia, with the Park Hyatt Sydney in second place, Halcyon House in Cabarita Beach, NSW, in third place, Osborn House in Bundanoon, New South Wales in ninth place and The Langham Melbourne in 10th grade.
These awards come at a time when Australia is experiencing a travel boom. Residents returned from almost two million short overseas trips in July 2024, up 10.4% from the previous year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Australia's travel industry is experiencing record growth and is expected to inject $265 billion into the Australian economy in 2024, representing around 10% of the country's GDP, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
In 2023, jobs in Australia's travel and tourism sector grew by almost 10% from the previous year, reaching 1.42 million and accounting for a tenth of the national workforce, the report says research on the 2024 economic impact of WTTC.
Over the next decade, the sector is expected to support more than two million jobs, representing 12 per cent of total employment in Australia, the report said.
