Business class trips to Australia, Bali holidays beckon as travellers' confidence returns

New Zealand travellers may have shaken off the gloom of earlier in the year to make the most of these school holidays.

House of Travel chief executive David Coombes said New Zealanders had "got their mojo back" and many outlets had a surge of last-minute bookings in the lead-up to the holidays for people who wanted to leave now or over the next month.

"New sales over the past six weeks are up more than 20 percent compared to the same time last year, which speaks to travel confidence after some hesitancy in the second quarter.

"If it feels like everyone in the office is in the Pacific Islands these school holidays, you wouldn't be wrong. Close to home flop and drop getaways are what our customers have booked for their mid-year reset with Fiji, Cook Islands and Samoa the most popular destinations. Accommodation with kids clubs has been a top customer requirement to give parents a break while the kids are having fun."

He said Bali bookings were up 19 percent compared to last year.

"We're also seeing more family customers booking holidays in the quieter parts of Bali like Sanur, Canggu, Legian and Ubud."

He said more people were choosing to upgrade to business class for their trips to the Cook Islands, Bali and Thailand. Premium economy bookings to Fiji had also increased.

The biggest increase in business class travel was to Australia, where bookings were up 20 percent year-on-year.

Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod agreed travel spending had picked up but said it was still relatively soft over the longer term.

He said travel had the biggest increase of any type of spending recorded on Westpac cards over the past month, up 6 percent in June and recovering most of the fall that happened when conflict broke out in the Middle East.

"Much of that increase will reflect a catchup of spending that was delayed in previous months due to nervousness about the global backdrop. However, anecdotes from those in the hospitality sector suggest there has also been a switch in the makeup of spending, with a shift to holidays in 'safer' destinations closer to New Zealand. Some New Zealanders are also choosing to take holidays onshore rather than travelling abroad."

Destination Queenstown chief executive Mat Woods said his area had been helped by school holidays being spread out. Victoria and Queensland school holidays started ahead of the break on this side of the Tasman.

"It feels very buoyant, it's busy, if we actually look at airport arrivals we're roughly 6 percent up in comparison to last year and hotel accommodation or commercial accommodation is up 14 percent … it's good to see that there are strong numbers and I think we're seeing that from both Trans-Tasman and from domestic New Zealand."

Dave Chappell of CS Travel said some travellers were already wondering when airlines would remove their fuel surcharges. Once that happened things would be properly back to normal., he said.

Many people had opted to travel anyway.

"Fuel surcharges were added to every airline, to every flight routing. So the traveller, I think, would be thinking 'hey well let's forget Europe this year. Let's go a little bit closer and let's go to Bali because it is a bit more of an affordable place at the moment and revisit the further trips you know coming into next year'."

He said the industry had been through significant upheaval in recent years, due to Covid and then the fuel price increases of the Ukraine and Middle East conflicts.

"It probably won't be the last time something like this happens. But if and when it happens again, and we hope it doesn't, everyone in the industry is better prepared for it to out their clients however they need it."

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