While international and certain state borders finally opened up again, Aussies remain wary and cautious as past events have shown this can change very easily and quickly.
So it is no surprise that nearly half of Aussies are spending the Christmas break at home, with 37 per cent travelling within their state and 18 per cent planning an interstate trip, according to PayPal Australia’s 2021 Holiday Research.
Despite looking to spend more than previous years on the Christmas season including food, domestic travel and entertainment, Australians are planning to spend less on gifts as they look to focus on quality gifts over quantity.
“Last Christmas we couldn’t have big family get-togethers or travel interstate to see our relatives―all we could do was send gifts to each other,” PayPal Australia consumer shopping expert, Jess Rix, says.
“So it makes sense that this year Australians are planning to pull back a little on gifts while spending up on food, domestic travel, hosting Christmas parties and splurging on tickets and entertainment.”
However, shopping is still high on the agenda, with 28 per cent of Aussies most looking forward to shopping the sales over the holiday season.
Despite looking to spend more than last year altogether on the holiday season, Aussies plan to spend $68 less on gifts for family, friends and colleagues with an estimated average spend of $490 on Christmas presents, 12 per cent less than last year ($558).
The top five desired gifts this year are gift cards or vouchers (45 per cent), experiences such as wine tasting (31 per cent), clothing (30 per cent), cold hard cash (29 per cent) and food or alcohol hampers (28 per cent).
The gift of giving to oneself isn’t lost this year, with over a third (34 per cent) of Aussies looking to treat themselves in the Christmas sales if an item they want is on sale at a good price.
Aussies plan to do almost half (44 per cent) of their Christmas gift shopping online as it’s faster and Covid safe, up 18 per cent from before the pandemic (26 per cent).
