Australians are on the move: Close to 19 million people turn to travel websites and apps ahead of summer holidays – Ipsos iris data

More than 21 million people used a news website or app in October, up 2.4% year on year

24 November 2025 – As summer holidays tantalisingly approach, Australians have their minds on travel and getting around with 18.8 million people, or 85% of Australians aged 14+, using a travel website or app during October, according to the latest Ipsos iris data released today.

Australians spent around 54 minutes per month consuming online travel content last month. The overall Travel category grew by 4.5% year on year and this was driven by the automotive transportation category, which grew by +14.7% in October, followed by online travel at +11.6%, airlines with +9.2%, and travel news which was up +7.8%.

The Travel category includes all types of online activity related to travel from rideshare,  taxis, and public transport, to hotels and home sharing, airlines, cruises and overseas travel.

Women tended to spend more time with online travel content, at 57 minutes, compared to 51 minutes spent by men. Women were more likely to visit hotels, resorts and home sharing websites and apps compared to men. Men, on the other hand, were more likely to visit the rail and train category than women.

People aged over 40 spent the most time consuming online travel content at 59 minutes per month. The most popular categories for the over 40s were the online travel category with 7.3 million people consuming website and app content, followed by airlines with 6.8 million people.

The over 40s audience reach in the Travel category is 2.5 times larger than those aged under 40, at 29.5% versus 11.9%.

The chart below shows the Travel brands’ ranking during October 2025 by online audience size.

Online news content consumption rises +2.4% year on year

The number of people using a news website or app in October rose by +2.4% year on year to 21.1 million, reaching 95.5% of online Australians aged 14+.

Last month, Australians aged 14+ spent an average of 3.27 hours consuming news content online, which is on par with the corresponding period last year.

Australians turned to news websites and apps for major local and international news events. In Australia, online consumption was driven by the search for four-year-old missing boy Gus Lamont in outback South Australia, as well as continued coverage of the separation of celebrity couple Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, the random stabbing of a woman in Melbourne’s CBD, plus Nine Network’s The Block finale and major sports events including the NRL Grand Final between the Brisbane Broncos and Melbourne Storm, AFL and NRL player trades, and the NRL Dally M Awards red carpet fashion.

Globally news events that caught our attention included the death of actor Diane Keaton, Hurricane Melissa making landfall in Jamaica, the ongoing scandals surrounding royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and the release of hostages following the Gaza ceasefire.

The chart below shows the News brands’ ranking during October 2025 by online audience size.

Career, Homes and Automotive categories see biggest audience increases in October

Website and apps categories with the highest year-on-year growth in October were topped by Career (up +11.8%), Homes and Property (+10.2%) and Automotive (+8.7%), followed by Lifestyle (+6.9%) and Energy Suppliers/Utilities (+5.8%).

Ipsos iris, Australia’s digital audience measurement currency endorsed by IAB Australia, showed that a total of 22.127 million Australians aged 14+ used the internet in October and spent 4.68 hours per day on average online, which was up 2.9% compared to the same time last year.

The most consumed website and app categories in September were Search Engines (22.08 million), Social Networking (22.05 million), Technology (22.03 million), Online Media (22 million) and Retail and Commerce (21.9 million).

Ipsos iris provides accurate data about the 22.127 million Australians aged 14+ who access a wide variety of digital content and services across smartphone, PC/laptop and tablet devices.

Notes for editors:

• Ipsos iris is an independent source of truth for the media industry providing a level playing field for comparison of audience reach and characteristics and supporting the $16.4 billion Australian online advertising market (Source; IAB Australia Internet Advertising Revenue Report prepared by PWC CY24)
• Ipsos iris provides accuracy in solving cross-device deduplication, the biggest challenge in measuring online audiences, using a single-source multi-device panel measuring activity on 8,000 smartphone, PC, laptop and tablet devices
• Ipsos iris provides accurate data about the number of people who visit the content of digital publishers and platforms, along with the frequency of visits and time spent by tracking digital audience behaviour across desktop/laptop, smartphone, and tablets.  It uses a hybrid methodology that combines metered data from a high quality, nationally representative, single-source passive panel with site-centric census measurement via media owner tagging.
• In February 2024, the CTV audience currency integration from a data partnership with OzTAM launched, providing total unduplicated digital audience currency data for BVOD across CTV, smartphones, tablets, and computers.
• In August 2024, enriched YouTube audience reach and watch time data for Connected TV across mobile, desktop and tablets was integrated into Ipsos iris, in collaboration with Google and IAB Australia.
• Ipsos iris is fully privacy compliant and cross-media ready and will continue to evolve with a roadmap of enhancements over 2024 and beyond. It will also be adaptable to changing requirements as the industry develops in future years.
• The launch of Ipsos iris with monthly data from January 2023 was the culmination of extensive work by the IAB and its Measurement Council that commenced in early 2021 with a strategic review of industry requirements. Ipsos was awarded the IAB’s endorsement, having best met the standards on criteria across all areas of product along with criteria for operations and a future roadmap.
• Further information can be found at: https://iris-au.ipsos.com/