Results from a recent online travel intentions survey has shown that people from key Asia Pacific source markets have voted Australia and Japan as their top choice for a holiday.

Australia came in as the top destination choice as 17 per cent of the 6,714 surveyed respondents put Australia at the head of their holiday list, revealed the Visa and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Travel Intentions Survey. 59 per cent of those choosing Australia hailed from New Zealand, 29 percent from the United Kingdom, 20 per cent from the United States and 17 per cent from Japan.

Japan came in at a very close second, netting 16 per cent of the survey respondents, the majority of whom came from South Korea (38 per cent), Chinese Taipei (34 per cent), Thailand (26 per cent) and Hong Kong (22 per cent). "It is vital to gain insight into where one's customers want to go next," PATA Chief Executive Greg Duffell said.

"Travel intention intelligence such as is revealed in this annual survey from Visa and PATA is critical for today's destination and product marketers given the pressures placed on them to improve returns on investment even as budgets are being squeezed." The survey, also found that almost half of the respondents booked direct with hotels and airlines, bar one third of travellers from Mainland China and 25 per cent from Chinese Taipei and Thailand who still preferred packaged group tours.

"…our findings also show that seven in ten respondents use the internet as a main source of travel information when planning for their holiday trips," Visa Head of Cross-Border Business, Asia Pacific Ross Jackson said.

"This suggests that the trend of people planning their own trips online is likely to increase."

The online survey was commissioned by Visa and PATA and asked an average 500 people from Australia, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Mainland China, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States) about past and future travel plans. Respondents over 18 years old and had travelled for leisure internationally in the past two years or have the intention to do so in the next two years.