Australian Day Holiday-makers Head To The Cities To Join The Celebrations

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20th January 2010, 02:21pm - Views: 812





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Australian Day Holiday-Makers Head to the Cities to Join the Celebrations


Sydney, 20 January 2010 – The big city festivities are the main attraction for the Australia Day weekend,

as travelers take advantage of great city hotel deals around the country.


Hotel price comparison site HotelsCombined.com General Manager Michael Doubinski said “There are

some great city breaks still on offer for travelers making late bookings, despite high demand in a

recovering economy. We’re logging a Melbourne spike this year, with 35% of site visitors booking a

Melbourne trip, ahead of 30% for Sydney. The Gold Coast is coming in third in the popularity stakes, but

this year most travelers are choosing a city weekend break rather than heading for the beaches.”


Doubinski indicated “Site statistics show that Australians making a late hotel booking for the Australia Day

period will be paying an average of $182 in Melbourne, $161 in Sydney, $157 on the Gold Coast and

$158 in the nation’s capital. 


According to the latest quarterly survey from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, accommodation in fourth

quarter of 2009 recorded a 6% drop in average hotel rates due to the global financial crisis. Sydney has

been hardest hit, having average rates down by nearly 12%. 


“Travelers are taking advantage of the dip in accommodation pricing to be part of the fun at the free

celebrations in our largest cities, with a little more spending money left in their pockets,” said Doubinski.


Many Melbourne visitors will be bound for the Australian Open Tennis to watch 3rd and 4th round singles

and quarter-final matches scheduled between Saturday 23rd and Tuesday 26th. For horse racing fans,

Australia Day Race Day at Caulfield is another major sporting drawcard. 


Whether swimming or just watching, the crowds will also be down at Brighton for The Great Australia Day

Swim at 9am. The 1.2 km open water swim from the pier finishes inside the iconic Middle Brighton Baths.

A drawcard will be the inaugural Klim Swim Relay, with Olympic swimming legend Michael Klim and other

Olympians joining corporate relay teams competing over a 5 x 400 metre course for the Klim Swim

Charity Trophy and team prize.


In Sydney, families and visitors will descend on Darling Harbour and Cockle Bay for official celebrations

including the ABC for Kids concert and cultural music and dance performances on the Aquashell. The

party will wrap up with the Australia Day Spectacular, featuring local stars including 2009 Australian Idol

winner Stan Walker and a dramatic ‘multimedia symphony’ of light, sound, music and fireworks.


About HotelsCombined.com

 

HotelsCombined.com is the world’s leading hotel meta-search engine and largest online hotel rate

aggregator, with the largest database of 200,000 hotels in 20,000 destinations, across 195 countries.

HotelsCombined.com laser targets its resources to deliver more than 900,000 real-time hotel deals which

can be compared and booked directly through leading supplier partners such as Expedia.com,

Booking.com, Travelocity.com and Hotels.com, as well as via corporate hotel partnerships with

InterContinental, Hilton and many others. More than 4.5 million monthly worldwide visitors utilise 4.5

million hotel images, 2.5 million hotel descriptions and maps and 1.5 million customer reviews to help

choose the best hotel and best available deal. For more information or to find unbeatable hotel deals, visit




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Media Contact


Vicki Byrne

Head of Business Development 

Phone: +61 2 8011 4192

Mobile: +61 403 561 344

Email: Vicki@HotelsCombined.com








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