By Renee Goodsell on September 15, 2020 at 02:31 PM
As we try and forecast or re-imagine the future of New Zealand tourism, we see change, not like we have seen in the past from popular disruptors like Airbnb or Uber, but a change that is making us pause and engage with a different audience. This audience has been with us for generations but often overlooked. We are talking about those living within our own backyard, fellow Kiwis who call this country home.
Earlier this year, tourism was substantially impacted by the outbreak and spread of COVID-19. Borders were closed, airlines grounded, activities shut down and hotel staff sent home. It was devastating seeing so many of our peers seeking employment and having to do so in other industries.
With the most recent lock down of Auckland, many of the tourism operations we spoke with were concerned about the sentiment for travel across the country. So we wanted to better understand the mood and opinions of Kiwis. We felt we needed to better understand the thoughts of the domestic audience so we can provide researched based data, not opinion, to our customers. To this end, Tomahawk partnered with Together Works to hear first-hand from 1,000 fellow Kiwis what they thought about traveling their own backyard during a global pandemic.
Connections are the antidote to madness.
During the last few months, we have come to realise that as humans we value connections more now than we previously may have realised. These might be with friends, family, or colleagues. When asked the reason to holiday, the most popular is still visiting friends and family, with 71% identifying this as the reason they would travel.
It was surprising for the team to see that while visiting friends and family was the most popular reason for travel more Kiwis (54%) are likely to pay for accommodation than stay with their loved ones while on holiday. While on holiday 44% of Kiwis are likely to pay for tourist activities and entertainment.
Visiting friends and family is closely followed by ‘Food and Beverage’ as more Kiwis are looking to enjoy the social element that comes with enjoying these things.
When looking to make travel plans, 67% of Kiwis said they will research, plan, and book their own travel as they are not interested in using a third-party support like travel agents or brokers.
While both key cities and regional towns are a strong favourite for holidays, we identified 64% of the respondents favour visiting regions within the same island. And what is great to learn is that “supporting local” is alive and well in New Zealand with nearly half looking to further explore their own region. It is so often the case that we explore further afield before doing so our own back yard. These last few months have seen many of us visiting park, stopping at cafes, and eating at restaurants that we have walked past many times.
Flowers grow back, even after the harshest Winter.
When COVID-19 swept across the globe, we heard from many of you within hours that cancellations were flooding through. Travel plans were changing for everyone. Since then its been a welcome relief to hear that for some the domestic audience was already a stable part of the customer mix and through winter things were better than initially forecasted. Our research has shown that nearly half of Kiwis (48%) state their plans to travel within NZ in the next 12 months have been unchanged in the face of the ongoing pandemic.
One of the key take-aways from this piece of research, which was run as Auckland moved from Alert Level 3 to Alert Level 2.5 is that it has not impacted on the appetite to travel as we have seen 55% are confident travelling within NZ at level 2 restrictions and 74% at level 1 restrictions.
Travel is the only thing that makes you richer.
As a marketing agency we are often asked to segment audiences by value, e.g. how much they are willing to spend on a holiday. Understanding travel is a luxury purchase, it all starts with a dream. Unlike buying a washing machine, that is more logical. Understanding where people are more likely to spend while on holiday helps us drive success for our customers.
Health Matters.
Given we are facing a global health crisis, it would be naïve of us if we did not think it would impact peoples travel behaviour. When planning a holiday 68% of Kiwis said the health and safety of their family was important, to support this we saw 60% referencing social distancing rules being an important factor of travel.
To support this, and the need for flexibility in travel bookings, we have seen a rise in those purchasing more flexible flights, refundable accommodation, and even domestic insurance. With 23% of us comfortable to spend an additional 5% for this additional flexibility or insurance.
Learn more about we learnt – webinar Thursday 17th September
The data available because of this research can be adapted to better understand trends by gender, age, demographic and household income. We are going to be looking at two audiences in further details and share our findings, along with how to use this information in an upcoming webinar this Thursday 17 September. If you would like to join us click here to register.
If you or your business could benefit from a research piece specific to your KPI’s please get in touch with the team at Tomahawk to discuss further. Our partnership with Together Works ensures a timely turn around so data is fresh and a minimum 1,000 pax sample size.
This research piece was done as a partnership between Tomahawk and Together Works, as a gift to the tourism industry.
Should you have any questions or would like to discuss how the data can be used for your tourism business please get in touch and we are happy to share.