Billion-dollar travel bonus

If you’ve been overseas recently, did you return home with a wad of foreign money in your wallet or purse? 

If so, you are not alone. 

Australians are sitting on a potential $1.04 billion in unspent foreign currency, with 68% of international travellers admitting in a survey to having leftover holiday money tucked away at home. 

The study, conducted for hotel group Accor earlier this month among Australians who have travelled overseas, revealed that 14% are holding onto at least A$300 in foreign currency since returning from abroad.  

A third of respondents (34%) said they had the equivalent of $49 squirrelled away. 

Despite the increased cost of living pressures at home, 59% of people polled by Accor said they had travelled abroad in the past 12 months. 

And when it comes to travel, Keep Cash is a popular mantra. 

A surprising 97% of respondents say they are still opting to carry physical cash in the destination currency when travelling abroad, despite the plethora of cashless options available. 

They are doing so to avoid international card transaction fees (43% of respondents), as well as for trips to the local market (60%), food and drink purchases (68%), and other small purchases (73%).

Aussie travellers are also a generous bunch, with 43% saying they carry cash to use as tips. 

When it comes to how we exchange our money, traditional methods remain popular.

More than half (56%) of respondents visited currency exchange stores and 38% used bank branches. Even younger people who generally use digital banking at home preferred traditional banking (35%) over apps (19%) for acquiring their holiday money. 

Commenting on the survey, Accor Pacific Chief Operating Officer Pacific, Premium, Midscale and Economy Division, Adrian Williams, said the hotel chain had seen a “remarkable resurgence in international travel”. 

“While we're seeing such strong appetite for global travel, we're also seeing millions in foreign currency sitting idle in homes across the country,” he said. 

Mr Williams was promoting a scheme where Accor hotels donate customers’ unused travel money to the Domestic Violence Collective. 

“It’s a meaningful way to put idle travel money to good use while celebrating our spirit for exploration," he said. 

Other businesses, including some airlines, also collect foreign coins and notes on behalf of charities. 

However, while we are generous towards worthy causes, 49% of survey respondents said they kept hold of foreign currency after a trip with the view to returning to that country in the future.

One in five (20%) said they kept foreign cash as souvenirs, while 26% said they did so because it was too much of a hassle to convert it back to Australian currency. 

The top five most popular currencies to hold onto were the US dollar (37%), Euro (33%), Singapore dollar (21%), British pound (20%), and New Zealand Dollar (20%).