Visitor Experience Monitor

Last Updated on: 26 March 2010

During 2008/09, visitors from the UK were among the most satisfied with their New Zealand holidays. Overall, they rated their satisfaction with the New Zealand holiday experience 9.3 out of 10.

Introduction

Each year Tourism New Zealand commissions independent research to gain a sense of how satisfied our international visitors are with the holiday experience New Zealand provides.

Making sure that international visitors have an enjoyable experience is the key to the future of the tourism industry. Visitors that have the experience of a lifetime while on holiday in New Zealand are more likely to recommend the destination to other people or return for a second visit themselves.

Conducted annually, the Visitor Experience Monitor provides a benchmark for the New Zealand tourism industry from which to improve the experiences it offers visitors.

Overall experience

During 2008/09, visitors from the UK were among the most satisfied with their New Zealand holidays. Overall, they rated their satisfaction with the New Zealand holiday experience 9.3 out of 10, which is consistent with previous years. The vast majority of British visitors (99 per cent) said they were likely to recommend New Zealand as a holiday destination.

Visitors from the UK said they were more likely to speak or write positively about New Zealand when speaking to others in person (98 per cent); when sending emails, instant messages or letters to individuals (70 per cent); or sharing their opinions in online forums such as blogs, discussions or social networking websites (9 per cent).

Accommodation

Among the seven areas mentioned above, accommodation had one of the lowest overall satisfaction ratings among visitors from the UK. However, with a rating of 8.7 out of 10, this was still higher than satisfaction with accommodation across all markets (8.4 out of 10).

With regard to accommodation, visitors from the UK rated quality of facilities and amenities 8.4 out of 10, quality of service 8.4 and price 8.3.

Food and beverage

Food and beverage was the area with the lowest satisfaction for visitors from the UK. The overall satisfaction score for food and beverage was 8.4 out of 10. Although lower than other areas, this score was still higher than satisfaction with food and beverage across all markets (8.1 out of 10).

Within the area of food and beverage, visitors rated quality of food and beverage 8.1 out of 10, quality of service 8.2, and price 8.0. The satisfaction levels of the latter two aspects were higher than the scores for all other markets.

Transport

Visitors from the UK are reasonably satisfied with transport in New Zealand. Overall, this area received a satisfaction rating of 8.6 out of 10, which is close to the score for all markets of 8.4.

Satisfaction with price (rated 8.3 out of 10) was slightly lower than other aspects of transport, including comfort, safety and reliability (8.5) and quality of service (8.5).

Activities

Visitors from the UK are more satisfied with activities than the majority of other markets, rating activities 9.2 out of 10, compared with the overall score of 8.9 for all other markets.

Visitors from the UK were highly satisfied with all aspects of activities in New Zealand, including quality of the actual activity (8.7) and quality of service (8.7). Satisfaction with price of activities was lower at 8.3, but still higher than for all markets.

The New Zealand environment

Visitors from the UK are highly satisfied with New Zealand's environment. The overall satisfaction score of 9.0 out of 10 was close to the score across all other markets (8.9).

Visitors from the UK are most satisfied with New Zealand's natural landscapes and scenery (rated 9.7 out of 10), uncrowded spaces (9.3) and our clean, unpolluted environment (9.1).

Safety

Visitors from the UK rated their satisfaction with personal safety in New Zealand at 8.9, which is close to the overall rating for safety across all markets (8.7).

Road safety was rated comparatively low at 8.2 out of 10, while personal safety in country areas (9.1), safety standards of activities (8.9) and personal safety in urban areas (8.7) all had strong levels of satisfaction among visitors from the UK.

Holiday planning

The majority of visitors from the UK (94 per cent) decided what they would do on their holiday after they had made the decision to come to New Zealand. Conversely, nearly 6 per cent of visitors from the UK decided the type of holiday they wanted, and then chose New Zealand as their destination.

The factors that had the most influence on British visitors' decisions to come to New Zealand were having friends or family here (30 per cent), the natural scenery (21 per cent) or because they perceived New Zealand as 'somewhere new' (18 per cent).

Most visitors from the UK booked their trip to New Zealand between three and 12 months in advance of arriving here. Twenty-five per cent booked six to twelve months before arrival, more than one third (36 per cent) booked between three and six months before arrival, and 14 per cent booked two to three months before arrival.