the hyphen came first in my memory OR they just chose to use it? it was PRE-GOOGLE ! , MSN and yahoo were kings, looksmart had been but was quickly sliding out, ranking a site was easyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy in 2000.
beach hotel got refurbed , new highway to brissie planned to cut travel almost in half ( because no traffic lights ) and ballina airport got remodeled + virgin booming and jetstar came shortly after. big sydney money poured in and accomm was god but no hotel.com, trivago etc yet ++++ nobody had a website ! add to that 2 very clever guys on computers and it was a win with EVERY accom locally basically HAVING TO be listed with a few images and basic info + phone number so people made a fortune from the bookings at a listing cost of just@ $300 per ANNUM !!!!
so by the time google took hold the hyphen was so LARGE in content it just wasn't possible to switch and they had longevity so google loved them anyway.
thats my memory.
i can imagine you just get sick of it and hope some big mob buys you, total travel went to chanel 7 for 20 million yearsssssss ago, stayzzzz the same years earlier.
tim