Kiwis snap up sweet travel deals

Asian destinations such as Thailand have become more popular as the dollar has strengthened. Photo / Martin Sykes

Tourism retailers are seeing an upsurge in Kiwi travellers heading abroad as the strengthening New Zealand dollar makes overseas travel more appealing.

And they say tourists are getting more for their money this year because accommodation and airfares and other activities are well down on what they were a year ago as operators try to attract business after a downturn because of the recession.

Flight Centre spokeswoman Marie Pilkington said the company was starting to see greater interest in travel to Britain and Europe as the New Zealand dollar gained in strength.

"We're really noticing an upsurge of that, with people coming into inquire."

Ms Pilkington said that although most travel this year had been to Australia and the Pacific Islands, Asia had also become popular because the New Zealand dollar went so much further.

"This is a particularly good time to be looking because airfares are the lowest that we've seen in decades. It's really cheap. This year, prices to London have dropped as low as $1599. This time last year we were probably looking at $2500 to get to London.

"Then you've got the kiwi dollar on top of that. Not only does that help your spending money but things like hotels, rental cars ... you're almost getting a triple deal in terms of airfares, accommodation and spending money."

House of Travel sales director Brent Thomas said New Zealanders, like international travellers, had become fearful they might lose their jobs in the recession and had stopped making travel plans, or decided not to travel as far away.

But he said that over the past two months the company had seen demand increasing as confidence - and the economy - returned to more stable levels.

"We have noticed a definite upturn in holiday-making travellers from the middle of July," he said.

"Our passenger numbers are up this year but the type of travel they are doing is different - they're travelling closer to home."

Mr Thomas said he could not provide statistics on travellers because they were commercially sensitive but noted Fiji was a "significant" destination because the New Zealand dollar had strengthened so much against the Fiji dollar.

Some package deals to Fiji including five nights accommodation were more than $500 cheaper than they were last year.

Mr Thomas said the number of New Zealanders travelling to Thailand was up about 20 per cent on last year, which was "significant growth". Australia was also attracting more travellers.

"We have more people but the spending per person is down this year - and that simply is because they're travelling closer to home," Mr Thomas said.

"They travel to places like Australia, the South Pacific and Thailand rather than going to the UK, Europe or the States.

"Both those markets are down quite a lot this year."

Both companies said the busy season for European travel was in October and the industry was expecting even greater interest in coming weeks.

WHAT'S ON OFFER

Thailand: Flights, accommodation, breakfasts and set-menu dinners at the four star-Duangjitt Resort in Phuket for eight nights at $1499, extra four nights for $99. Includes free one-hour massage. (House of Travel)

London: Return airfares, four nights' stay with continental breakfast and one night accommodation in Seoul from $2199 per person, twin share. (Flight Centre)