Domestic travel activity softens

Media Statement

Domestic travel activity softens

Monday 28 July 2008 – For immediate release

Data just released by the Ministry of Tourism shows that New Zealand travellers spent $7.4 billion on travel within New Zealand in the year to March 2008, down 2.7% on the previous year.

“As anticipated, we are beginning to see a reduction in domestic travel in response to the weaker economy and higher costs, particularly for fuel,” said Bruce Bassett, Ministry of Tourism Research Manager.

Over the last year there were reductions in both the number of overnight and day trips made. Overnight trips reduced by 2.2% to 14.7 million and day trips by 12.5% to 26.2 million.

Mr Bassett said that increases in the cost of fuel were responsible for the falling number of trips, with day trip activity being the most affected.

“The reduction in day trips is a reaction to rising fuel costs with travellers clearly cutting back on some of their travel activities. With fuel prices staying high, we expect to see this softening in domestic activity continuing for some time."

The Domestic Travel Survey is a telephone survey of 15,000 New Zealand residents undertaken throughout the year. A range of data and reports from the survey are available on the Ministry of Tourism’s research website – www.tourismresearch.govt.nz/dts.

See... Full release with charts (PDF)

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