Australians might be clustering in the rapidly growing capitals, but it seems they are also increasingly yearning for short breaks beyond big city limits.
New data released by the global accommodation giant Airbnb show half the platform's listings in Australia are now outside major cities.
The company's manager for Australia and New Zealand, Sam McDonagh, said Airbnb is now an "economic lifeline" for many in the bush.
"Airbnb's supporting more than 4,000 local jobs in regional communities," he said.
"Without the cost or delay of building any new hotels, Airbnb has made regional Australia more accessible and affordable than ever before."
According to a Deloitte report, Airbnb accommodated 2.1 million people across Australia in the 2015-16 financial year.
Airbnb says 56 per cent of all guest arrivals in 2017 across Australia were to listings outside the major cities.
Ron Hellyer, whose family home in Broken Hill in far western NSW is listed on Airbnb, said demand is strong.
"We haven't been empty since we listed. We have a combination of tourists and visitors — people on planes, trains and automobiles," he said.
"The majority of the Australian contingent absolutely don't like coming out here for a period of time looking at the four walls of a motel, and they absolutely want to know why you live where you live."
He said listing the property on Airbnb had also offered the couple a steady source of income now their five children have moved out of home.
"It's a good income to keep repairing the house," he said.
Regulations need to catch up: hotel industry
The flip side of Airbnb's expansion into regional areas has been increased competition for tourist dollars.
In NSW, the company's growth areas include Byron Bay, Nowra, Newcastle and Wollongong, while in Victoria the number of listings has grown along the Great Ocean Road.
In Queensland there are new listings popping up on the Gold Coast and in Far North Queensland, while growth in South Australia has been in Robe and Kingscote, and in Margaret River and Albany in WA.
Steve Old, from the Tasmanian Hospitality Association, said growth in Airbnb listings has had positive and negative effects.
"Airbnb brings not only some negatives for some of our hotel operators, it also brings positives to our restaurants and cafes," Mr Old said.
"But what's happening in parts of regional Tasmania at the moment is you've got operators struggling with all the regulations they're faced with.
"And then you've got other operators letting out their venues on Airbnb that are not paying the same regulatory costs."
"There's very much an uneven playing field and we've got to make sure we deal with that."
