Australians are confident booking New Zealand holidays and will
often book within three months of travel. They are heavy users of
the Internet to research and book, but many still book their New
Zealand holidays through traditional travel agents.
Tourism New Zealand has conducted research into the way
consumers from our target market research and book travel in order
to ensure the most effective channel strategy. The research
surveyed travellers from Australia, the UK, US and Germany. Over 200 surveys were conducted with
those who visited New Zealand during November and December
2008.
It should be noted that since the research was undertaken,
industry feedback suggests that visitors are now booking later
because of the economic downturn that hit in late 2008 and an
increase in special deals on last-minute travel.
How Australian visitors plan and book travel
New Zealand's target market in Australia is most likely to use
brochures and provider websites to research their holiday.
As New Zealand's closest major tourism market, Australians have
a high level of confidence in and knowledge of New Zealand,
especially repeat travellers. This means that their holidays in
this country, including flights, accommodation and transport are
usually booked less than three months before travelling.
One third of Australians don't book any accommodation until a
month before they arrive. The majority of accommodation booked
ahead of time is done so through contacting the provider directly,
through websites or by telephone. Five per cent of all Australians
don't book any accommodation before they arrive.
Although Australians research activities that might interest
them the month before they leave home, booking is done largely
after arrival in New Zealand. Australians are likely to simply call
the provider direct to make activity bookings. If done before
leaving home, calling the provider direct after an Internet search
is again the key method.
Of all New Zealand's 'Western' markets, Australians are the
heaviest users of online provider websites for both researching and
booking their holidays.
Although Australians are less likely to perceive travel agents
as offering cheaper deals, many perceive them to be reliable and a
large percentage will still book their travel through this
channel.
Once in New Zealand, Australians tend to use brochures to find
out more about what to do, transport, accommodation etc.
Read
an overview of the research
Read more about
Australia in the online market guide