Quiz: Are you smarter than 90% of Australians?

By Vanessa Brown

news.com.au·

14 Nov, 2019 04:18 AM2 mins to read

Only one in 10 could correctly identify each location. Photo / 123rf

Many of us are guilty of travelling to plenty of places overseas but doing only a little exploring in our own backyard.

But we're not the only ones. It turns out our cousins across the ditch know very little about Australian landmarks themselves.

From famous buildings to stunning scenery, a new survey released by online travel agency Expedia shows very few Aussies know much about the tourist hotspots in their nation, news.com.au reports.

The research from around 1000 participants shows that while Australians are no strangers to travelling the world and discovering new places globally, when it comes to checking out regions at home, only 10 per cent can correctly name seven popular landmarks and buildings around the country.

The new research also shows that more than 80 per cent of participants admit to a lack of knowledge about Australian holiday destinations.

While most Aussies have taken a domestic holiday in the past year, data shows they are playing it safe and mainly staying within the major cities or going back to familiar locations.

A spokesperson for Expedia said another contributing factor to the lack of Aussie adventure was cost, with 78 per cent of the respondents believing it is cheaper to holiday overseas than to remain in Australia.

Expedia's research showed time and money were significant constraints for domestic travellers who had not visited regional Australia in the past two years, while for international visitors, the constraints of time and cost also impacted their visit.

According to Tourism Research Australia (TRA), in 2017–18, there were more than 9 million international trips to Australia and another 100 million domestic overnight trips within Australia.

Encouraging more local and international visitors to venture beyond the capital cities and major centres has been a priority for the Australian tourism industry.

TRA said the other factor for locals not experiencing more of Australia was simply because one-in-10 domestic travellers preferred visiting overseas destinations rather than regional areas. But on the upside, the number of nights spent in regional Australia has increased by 30 per cent over the past decade to 282 million.

As part of Expedia's snap survey, participants were shown seven images of well-known Australian locations but only one in 10 could correctly identify each location.