The new Australian holiday landscape
John Anthony runs his eye over the sort of pricing New Zealanders can expect as the only international tourists allowed into the Lucky Country.
New Zealanders planning a holiday to Australia may find some travel costs, such as flights, have increased due to Covid-19, while other aspects of the trip are being discounted, experts say.
There were 46,226 departures from New Zealand to Australia between the start of two-way quarantine-free travel on April 19 and May 7. By contrast there were nearly 60,000 people travelling from Australia to New Zealand in the same period.
Industry experts say travellers to Australia are still mostly those visiting family and friends, and it will take time before holidaymakers are confident enough to book. Covid-19 flareups in Australia resulted in New Zealand authorities temporarily suspending flights to Western
Australia and New South Wales within the first three weeks of the bubble.
Stuff’s NowNext survey from the end of March, which attracted 21,000 responses, found 37 per cent of respondents wanted to travel to Australia when international travel became possible. The next most popular destination was the Pacific Islands on 30 per cent.
Research from Tourism Australia in March found 70 per cent of New Zealanders want to visit Australia and 62 per cent had it at the top of their list to visit once the pandemic was over. It also found that in 2019, New Zealand was Australia’s second-largest market for visitor arrivals and fourth-largest for visitor spend and visitor nights.
The 1.4 million New Zealanders who travelled to Australia in 2019 spent A$2.6 billion (NZ$2.8b), and on average, a New Zealand leisure visitor spent A$1940 per trip to Australia.
A big part of the cost of an international holiday is, of course, airfares. Trans-Tasman capacity has come back strong since the bubble opened, but airfares are not what they used to be, with competition on the Tasman well down compared to prepandemic. In February last year Air New Zealand was offering one-way trans-Tasman fares for as low as $69 to stimulate softening demand during the first signs of the pandemic. The airline was selling Auckland-Melbourne or Christchurch-Melbourne flights for $69, and Auckland-Brisbane, Auckland-Sydney, ChristchurchBrisbane or Wellington-Sydney for $79.
It now offers AucklandMelbourne from $156 one-way or Auckland-Sydney from $179.
Brent Narbey, owner of travel agency First Light, said holidaying in Australia was more expensive in other areas too. Some hotels in the Northern Territory had closed because they couldn’t find staff and that was pushing up prices and affecting room availability, he said.
‘‘Prices have gone up, without a doubt, and availability is becoming a real issue,’’ Narbey said.
Demand from Australian domestic travellers had pushed prices up by 10 to 15 per cent, he said.
Destinations with ample accommodation, such as the Gold Coast and Sydney, were more affordable than remote destinations such as Tasmania and the Northern Territory. ‘‘It’s really about how many rooms these areas have to offer.’’
He said friends and family were the first travellers when the bubble opened, and tourists were holding back. ‘‘We’ve had a lot of inquiries but not a lot of bookings.’’
Some were looking to book for Christmas and early 2022, he said. ‘‘I think everyone is waiting to see how the bubble actually works.’’
Australians were excited about getting over to New Zealand and First Light was booking more holidays for Australians travelling to New Zealand than the other way around, he said.
‘‘I don’t see at the moment the reciprocal feeling. They see us as an opportunity to have a real overseas holiday, and perhaps they haven’t been over here before.’’
Narbey said Australian car rental prices had also increased due to high demand, and there were minimum rental periods, in some cases 10 days.
‘‘During Covid they sold their fleet, they didn’t know when they were going to start up, so they
‘‘They’ll get treated really well because everyone is keen to see them, and they’ll see some options which are perhaps a little less expensive as well.’’ Brent Hill South Australia Tourism Commission executive director
haven’t got as many cars as they would have hoped. That’s posing a real problem.’’
A couple on holiday in Australia should budget for roughly $3500 to $5500 a week, not including airfares, he said.
South Australia Tourism Commission executive director Brent Hill said domestic tourism was strong, but there was still some good pricing in the market.
‘‘I get pretty granular with the industry and I haven’t seen too much of an increase in price,’’ Hill said. ‘‘There’s a lot of pretty good deals going around because there’s still a little bit of capacity there.’’
Domestic flights were much cheaper than pre-pandemic and trans-Tasman flights were ‘‘pretty competitive’’, he said.
The opening of some new hotels in Adelaide meant accommodation prices hadn’t increased dramatically because there was greater supply, he said.
Visitors could stay in a fivestar hotel in Adelaide for about A$250, he said. Some tourism experiences such as mountain biking or wine tours were cheaper than pre-Covid and there were more activities on offer as operators diversified and expanded their offering for visitors, he said.
‘‘They’ll get treated really well because everyone is keen to see them, and they’ll see some options which are perhaps a little less expensive as well.’’
Hill expected discounting would remain until Australia opened its borders to other countries such as Singapore, and tourist numbers would pick up once people felt more confident about the bubble and saw others having successful holidays.
Those that were coming over were looking for uniquely Australian experiences such as visiting the outback or river cruises, he said. Flight Centre NZ general manager product Victoria Courtney said after a year of no overseas tourism, hotels and attractions in Australia were looking to draw in customers with low pricing and deals in a what was competitive market.
‘‘Many hotels are offering free flexible rates, so you can change up until the date of travel should anything happen,’’ Courtney said. Flights had come down in price since the bubble announcement, she said.
Buying a holiday as a package, which included flights, accommodation and activities, could make for a more affordable trip, and saved time, she said.