One in Three Kiwis Planning Easter Holiday

One in Three Kiwis Planning Easter Holiday

With the festive season a fast-fading memory, one in three New Zealanders is already planning an Easter break in holiday hot spots around the country, according to the latest Fly Buys/Colmar Brunton Mood of the New Zealand Traveller, a quarterly survey released by the Tourism Industry Association New Zealand (TIA) today.

The survey also reveals it is also going to be hopping mad this Easter, with almost 10,000 Kiwis planning on dressing up as the Easter Bunny and 196,000 planning to eat so much chocolate they feel sick.*

Fly Buys Head of Marketing and Product Development Chris Lamers says almost one third of New Zealanders have already made plans to go away for at least one night over the four-day Easter weekend, and a further 30% haven’t decided how they’re spending their break yet.

“If you’ve got space for Easter weekend bookings, there are opportunities for tourism operators, especially in the hot spots. There’s also great news for businesses in these places, because each household spent around $31 a day on groceries alone while they were on their last trip.”

Mr Lamers says finance is the main reason stopping people from travelling, together with being too busy at work.

“This means good value, short-break Easter holidays, perhaps tied into loyalty points, could appeal to those people short on money or time.”

The Fly Buys/Colmar Brunton Mood of the New Zealand Traveller surveys 1000 New Zealanders age 18 and over. The New Zealanders interviewed were sourced from Colmar Brunton’s Fly Buys panel.

This is the second time the quarterly survey has been conducted. Harry Pappafloratos, Chief Executive Officer of Colmar Brunton, says as well as giving tourism operators valuable information about upcoming marketing opportunities, such as Easter, it will provide useful market intelligence about established and emerging trends.

TIA Chief Executive Tim Cossar says another interesting fact to emerge from this quarter’s Fly Buys/Colmar Brunton Mood of the New Zealand Traveller survey is that 6% of New Zealanders (223,000) have been on an overnight holiday that has included some cycling in the last six months.

“That’s very positive and an area operators will be watching given the Government’s intention to invest significantly in developing a national cycle way.”

Mr Cossar says TIA and its members can use the consumer information about domestic tourism in the Mood of the New Zealand Traveller survey to help decide where and when to invest in marketing and product development.

“It’s fantastic that Fly Buys and Colmar Brunton are supporting TIA and our members through the survey to grow New Zealand tourism and increase our contribution to the economy.”

Further findings
• We are a nation of travellers – 79% (2.35 million) of adult New Zealanders have taken an overnight trip in the last six months

• 71% (2.11 million) are planning to take an average of 2.2 overnight trips

• While away over Christmas/New Year, the average New Zealand household spent $31 a day at supermarkets – that equates to approximately $22.679 million per day

• About half of us went away for at least a night over the Christmas/New Year holidays and three quarters rated it a fantastic or really good holiday (those that didn’t blamed the bad weather, family tension and not enough days off work)

Favourite New Zealand destination for a late summer/autumn holiday

1. Christchurch 2. Wellington 3. Auckland 4. Queenstown 5. Nelson

Favourite international destinations for late/summer/autumn holiday

1. Australia 2. USA 3. Fiji 4. UK 5. Rarotonga

View the survey results on www.tianz.org.nz

* Easter Bunny and chocolate statistics based on those likely to travel over Easter or who are still undecided.

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1002/Mood_of_the_New_Zealand_Traveller__February_2010_3.pdf

ENDS

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