As the country moves to the traffic light system, Aucklanders were unsurprisingly the most likely to say Covid-19 has affected their Christmas/new year plans, with 78 per cent saying it has.
As the country moves to the traffic light system, Aucklanders were unsurprisingly the most likely to say Covid-19 has affected their Christmas/new year plans, with 78 per cent saying it has.
Two-thirds of Kiwis say Covid-19 has affected their holiday plans this year, many of whom will not be travelling around the country this summer even though they usually would.
A survey of 1007 New Zealanders on December 11 and 12 by Research New Zealand has canvassed holiday plans for the festive season after our largest city spent almost four months in lockdown.
As the country moves to the traffic light system, Aucklanders were unsurprisingly the most likely to say Covid-19 has affected their Christmas/new year plans, with 78 per cent saying it has.
People have been adjusting their holiday plans in response to the pandemic.
In comparison, 59 per cent of South Island respondents said Covid-19 had impacted their holiday plans.
Although 44 per cent of all respondents said they were planning to travel to another part of New Zealand, 40 per cent said they were concerned about the possibility of "increasing numbers of Covid cases" in general.
Police check vehicles at the southern Auckland border checkpoint at Mercer as people make their getaways. Photo / Hayden Woodward
Thirty-five per cent or respondents said they were "concerned about the likelihood of Covid spreading to where they live, or where they would like to travel to".
And 17 per cent said they were concerned about "about spending time with friends and family members who are not vaccinated".
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks about Christmas at Parliament in Wellington on Friday the 10th of November 2021. Photo / Marty Melville
Thirteen per cent specifically said they had selected travel destinations that were "less likely to be impacted by Covid".
Research New Zealand managing partner Emanuel Kalafatelis says the poll reveals a desire to relax over the festive period among Kiwis albeit with an underlying anxiety.
"As we enter the Christmas/new year period, the results of this poll clearly point to the fact that people are still very much anxious about Covid-19 spreading – to the extent that for many, this has impacted their decision making about what and where they will go," Kalafatelis said.
Many respondents were concerned about the possibility of increasing Covid-19 case numbers (40 per cent), as well as the likelihood of Covid-19 spreading to their neighbourhood (35 per cent).
Seventeen per cent were concerned about spending time with friends and family members who were not vaccinated. Again, Aucklanders expressed greater levels of concern.
A poll shows 44 per cent of all Kiwis are planning to travel to another part of New Zealand over the festive break.
While 45 per cent of Aucklanders said they were planning to travel, they were nevertheless more likely to say they were "not traveling to other parts of NZ, even though [they] usually would" (28 per cent compared with 16 per cent of South Island respondents).
More likely to state that they were concerned "about spending time with friends and family members who are not vaccinated" - 22 per cent compared with 12 per cent of South Island respondents.
In comparison, while respondents living in the South Island appeared to be the least anxious about the current situation, and were the less likely to state their Christmas/new year holiday plans had been affected (59 per cent compared with 78 per cent for Aucklanders), they were more likely to say they were "concerned about the likelihood of Covid spreading to where [they] live, or where [they] would like to travel to" (41 per cent compared with 29 per cent for Aucklanders).
Research New Zealand is an independent, New Zealand-owned research organisation undertaking social and business research.
