According to BPAY's 2007 Usage & Attitudes Study, almost one in five Australian biller payers used BPAY in the past 12 months to make travel and hotel bookings, and a further 43 per cent would consider using the bill payment service for hotel and travel payments.

Couple these findings with the steady increase in short term international departures, and it not surprising that first-class travel companies such as Qantas.com, Flight Centre and STA Travel are among the hundreds of travel-related providers that have experienced a significant growth in its BPAY payments over the past year.

Recent figures indicate an average three per cent month-on-month rise in Flight Centre's BPAY payments from January 2007 to January 2008. STA Travel's BPAY payments also increased by five per cent over this period.

Significantly, since Qantas.com began offering the BPAY option in April 2006, its BPAY payments have soared by an average 20 per cent each month.

"BPAY makes particular sense for the Aussie traveller," says Andrew Arnott, General Manager, BPAY. "When a consumer makes a BPAY payment from their savings or cheque account, they know they are not returning home to any credit card bills or accumulated debt."

"Additionally, consumers can avoid a credit card surcharge that is becoming increasingly common."

"The travel industry has already embraced the advantages of e-commerce, with the advent of paperless tickets and online check-in options," said Arnott. "And with more people using the Internet as a travel planning tool, it makes commercial sense for a company to offer their customers the BPAY payment choice."

Travel-related expenses, such as flights, traveller's cheques, phone cards, foreign currency exchange and travel insurance were among the more than 200 million BPAY payments worth over $11 billion made last year - more payments than any other bill payment service.

BPAY is an efficient and user-friendly solution for payment collection that provides benefits for not only the consumer, but for the biller as well, such as healthier cash flow, cleared funds overnight and improved customer relations.