Kiwis pile on the air miles

Asian cities are top of the list for New Zealand businesspeople planning international travel, new research shows.

FCM Travel Solutions, the corporate travel arm of Flight Centre, has produced a new report which shows the most popular destinations for Kiwi corporate travellers.

Outside domestic and Australian travel, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Los Angeles and London were the top five business travel destinations for New Zealanders.

FCM general manager Andy Jack said the cities were home to many firms’ global headquarters.

‘‘There is a distinct trend with these top destinations – the Asian economy is growing and clearly the Kiwi business travellers are heading to where this growth is,’’ he said.

David Moss, of You Travel, said competition had made travel to Asia much cheaper.

‘‘There are four big Chinese carriers now which has brought the pricing down for Asian routes,’’ he said.

‘‘China Southern, we think of them as a new player but they’re not. They fly to so many destinations in Asia and it’s very competitive out of New Zealand. You can get to virtually any destination in Asia on sale now for under $1000, that’s cheaper than Rarotonga.’’

Statistics NZ figures show that in April there was a big change year-on-year in the number of people travelling from New Zealand on short-term trips to Australia, up 6600, the United States, up 2900, and Thailand, up 1700.

In the year to April, New Zealand residents took 2.7 million international trips, an increase of 11 per cent compared to 2016.