The Secret Is Out: Australia's Best Holiday Destination. As Revealed By Australians.

Online, February 7, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Australia is a popular international holiday destination, in 2012 there were more than 6 million visitors and every year holidaymakers add more than AU$35 billion to the Australia's economy according to Tourism Research Australia.

Regularly included in top ten global guides, Australia and its favourite tourist spots are recommended to families, backpackers, luxury and eco-tourists by leading travel organisations and websites including Lonely Planet, National Geographic, Tripadvisor & others.

But choosing where to go, what to see, and where to stay can be bewildering for first time tourists, when visitors spend an average of only 25 days in Australia (a sprawling 7.69 million sq. km land mass; of 6 states, various territories and nearly 35,000 km of coastline).

Although the state of New South Wales, with Sydney and the coastal resort of Byron Bay are internationally recognised holiday destinations for international tourists, new search engine for holiday parks www.Turu.com.au revealed that Queensland's Sunshine Coast is actually the most searched travel destination for Holiday parks.

During its first 30 days of launch in 2012, over 100,000 Australia wide users visited Turu com.au with more than 1 in every 4 searching for the state of Queensland and 20% of those of those clicking on The Sunshine Coast region in preference to other destinations that international tourists may be more familiar with.

Launching with more than 2,000 holiday park listings across Australia, the Turu website was established to provide travellers with a simple, easy solution to finding the right holiday accommodation and is already providing useful behaviour statistics.

"Turu is continuing to generate a wide range of valuable tourism statistics which will help the whole industry to gain a clearer picture of domestic tourism trends and preferences" said Turu.com.au general manager, Robert Gallagher.

Mr Gallagher said these search statistics provide evidence of the value of Turu within the tourism sector, "as well as the wider travel community."

"The Queensland numbers... demonstrate the value of Turu for holiday parks...to a national audience who will travel to different locations throughout the year," said Mr Gallagher noting the Australia-wide interest in both Queensland and the Sunshine Coast.

With year round sunshine, rainforest, untamed wilderness, quaint coastal towns and more than 73 holiday park listings under the Sunshine Coast region on turu.com.au , the Australian local holiday secret is out.

The top ten most clicked parks of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland during the launch period were:

• BIG4 Cania Gorge Holiday Park, BIG4, Monto, Qld
• Fraser Lodge Holiday Park, BIG4, Torquay, Qld
• Maaroom Caravan Park, Maaroom, Qld
• Australiana Village Caravan Park, Top Tourist Parks, Hervey Bay, Qld
• Woodgate Beach Tourist Park, Woodgate, Qld
• Alex Beach Top Tourist Park, Top Tourist Parks, Alexandra Headland, Qld
• Piabla Beachfront Tourist Parks, Hervey Bay, Qld
• Windmill Caravan Park, Urangan, Qld
• Burrum River Caravan Park, Howard, Qld
• Captain Cook Holiday Village, Top Tourist Parks, Seventeen Seventy, Qld

ends

Turu.com.au lists almost 1,800 holiday parks around Australia and has hosted more than half a million visitors and generated more than 40,000 booking enquiries in its first six months.

Turu is owned by Bauer Media Group, the world's largest magazine publisher, with over 500 magazine titles around the world.

Media contact :
Robert Gallagher
rgallagher@turu.com.au
0061 (03) 9567 4310