Ah, the classic rivalry – Melbourne vs Sydney? As the champions of Australian travel, we can’t help but love both cities equally. Melbourne wins us over with its thriving arts scene, world-class coffee and major sporting events, while Sydney dazzles with its beautiful beaches, Harbour magic and top-notch restaurants. While we don’t want to pit them against each other, we also can’t help wondering which city is more popular with Aussie travellers. Lucky for us, the answer to our question was recently unveiled in a study by online travel agency Webjet.
Drumroll, please… This year, Melbourne takes the crown as the most popular domestic destination for Australian travellers. That’s according to Webjet data, which looked at trips booked in 2024 for travel between January and October, 2025.
Out of all the trips booked last year, 18 per cent were headed to the Victorian capital and home of major events, like the Australian Open, Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, F1 Grand Prix and Yayoi Kusama exhibition. While Melbourne and Sydney typically battle it out for the top spot, Sydney came second in 2025, making up 13 per cent of Australia’s total domestic bookings.
Like usual, Queensland dominated the overall rankings, boasting more top ten inclusions than any other Australian state and accounting for 33 per cent of all domestic flight bookings. Brisbane swooped in to claim third place with 11 per cent of the total bookings, just edging out Perth and the Gold Coast, which both claimed ten per cent. The remaining Queensland entrants were Cairns and Maroochydore, in sixth and ninth place respectively. You can check out the full results below.
Here are the most popular domestic destinations in Australia for 2025:
- Melbourne, VIC – 18 per cent
- Sydney, NSW – 13 per cent
- Brisbane, QLD – 11 per cent
- Perth, WA – 10 per cent
- Gold Coast, QLD – 10 per cent
- Cairns, QLD – 9 per cent
- Adelaide, SA – 6 per cent
- Hobart, TAS – 5 per cent
- Maroochydore, QLD – 3 per cent
- Launceston, TAS – 3 per cent