Intrepid Kiwis still look overseas for holidays

Travel data suggests a small number of New Zealanders are still taking holidays abroad.

In the nine weeks from July 23 (the day the Australian travel bubble ended), Stats NZ said there were 180 holiday trips overseas where people had to stay in MIQ on the way back.

That is despite continued advice not to travel from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The data is drawn from passenger arrival cards and what people selected as the main reason for their travel. It excludes 8439 New Zealanders who took quarantinefree holidays to the Cook Islands, which also had a travel bubble in place until August 17.

Another country in the South Pacific without a travel bubble – Tonga – was still seemingly managing to lure a trickle of holidaymakers, with 108 trips deemed a ‘‘holiday/vacation’’.

The second most popular destination was the United States, where there were 18 holidays; then France and Greece, where there were nine holidays each; and China, where there were six.

Other people ventured further off the beaten track with three trips to Slovenia, three to Namibia and three to the Maldives.

The average length of holiday stays was 15 days, followed by 14 days in MIQ.

In the same nine weeks until September 30, people took 913 trips to visit family and friends, and 351 trips for business, to places excluding the Cook Islands.

House of Travel Albany’s owner, Tim Malone, runs the Facebook page Kiwis Coming Home. He said most people booking trips out of the country had pretty serious reasons.

‘‘Quite often their family are in trouble overseas – diagnosed with cancer or a terminal illness of some sort. Another common reason is new grandparents who are going to see a new grandchild who is a couple of years old and they’ve never met,’’ he said.

‘‘Those sort of things become desperate after a while.’’