NZ domestic holiday satisfaction stays high
But travel to Auckland and events attendance decline during COVID
Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) Chief Executive Chris Roberts has again called for all New Zealanders to get vaccinated as the country gears up for its long-awaited, lockdown-free summer holiday season.
“As we look forward to summer holidays, tourism operators in every region are gearing up to welcome manuhiri with world-class activities and experiences, we encourage everyone to get vaccinated and to make the most of being able to once again travel around Aotearoa,” Mr Roberts said.
His comment follows the release of new TIA research showing while fewer New Zealanders have travelled to attend public and private events around Aotearoa in the last year, the number of Kiwis taking domestic holidays did not change.
The TIA ‘Domestic Visitor Satisfaction’ survey, regularly questions New Zealanders on their perceptions of regional travel and complements other domestic market research carried out by Tourism New Zealand.
Mr Roberts said that TIA knows lockdowns and the uncertainty created by the pandemic have seriously event attendance with research for the year ending September 2021 showing 11 percent of domestic leisure trips were for events, down from 17 percent the previous year.
A total of 51 percent of domestic leisure trips were for holidays or short breaks (up from 45 percent), while 36 percent were to visit family and friends (up from 35 percent).
The research shows COVID has also changed where people are travelling, with Auckland recording the largest decline in market share of leisure trips, from 24 percent year ending September 2020) to 21 percent.
“This is likely a combination of the lockdowns affecting Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and resulting impacts on events in the region,” Mr Roberts said.
Hamilton/Waikato and Queenstown gained the most market share, rising from 10 percent to 13 percent and 7 percent to 10 percent, respectively.
“Pleasingly, Kiwis continue to be very satisfied with their domestic breaks, with 62 percent scoring their satisfaction level as nine out of 10 or 10 out of 10. And 52 percent said their expectations were exceeded on their latest trip,” Mr Roberts said.
To read the latest Domestic Visitor Satisfaction research, go to: https://tia.org.nz/resources-and-tools/insight/domestic-satisfaction-report/
Mike Parker-Brown is a UK-trained and qualified journalist and an award-winning travel communicator with more than 30 years experience.
Since 2002, Mike has worked as a freelance writer and PR consultant providing his services to major organisations in Australia and internationally in the tourism, aviation, hospitality, recruitment and export marketing sectors.
