Speaking to TTG at travel trade show Trenz, in Auckland, Pip Casey, regional manager, UK and Europe, said the UK market was looking “really, really strong”, with 15,000 UK visitors expected to visit during June and July’s British & Irish Lions rugby tour alone.
New routes from Qatar Airways and Emirates have made the country more accessible for those living in locations such as Manchester and Glasgow, and the reductions in airfares resulting from this increased competition have helped offset the impact of sterling’s post-Brexit slump, he said.
UK arrivals to New Zealand, which fell to 204,000 in 2013 having reached a pre-recession high of 312,000, continue to edge upwards, with the number of UK visitors for the year ending March 2017 totalling 223,000, up 4.2% year-on-year.
This figure, which included 96,000 visiting on holiday (a rise of 5.4%), followed a softened January-March, impacted by the late Easter.
This led to a surge in visits in April 2017 of around 25-30%, said Casey, pointing out that spring and autumn were “great” times to visit or sell New Zealand, with more settled weather than in the northern hemisphere.
However, the country has seen a dip in average UK visitor spend after the Brexit vote. Repeat bookings remain strong though, with half of UK arrivals having already visited the country at least once before.
Casey claimed New Zealand’s reputation as a safe destination for adventure travel continued to resonate with the youth market, and this was backed up by STA Travel UK’s global marketing director, Emma Hudson.
New forecast figures released at Trenz by the country’s Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment also pointed to increased growth from the European market, albeit overshadowed by fast-growing markets such as China, with UK visitors set to reach 268,000 by 2023.
