World leading travel brand Trafalgar are teaming up with New Zealand to drive domestic product development for Kiwis, by Kiwis.
With New Zealand out the other side of Covid-19 and able to resume domestic travel, many Kiwis have scrapped their international holidays and have now booked trips within the country.
A recent study from Angus and Associates indicated that 90 percent of New Zealanders are eager to travel New Zealand in the coming months. Trafalgar’s own study also revealed 39 percent of people who booked to travel overseas in 2020 might instead choose to travel within New Zealand.
“After a period of re-imagination into a new world where conscious thought and action is driving purchasing decisions, we’ve listened to New Zealand travellers directly, through their travel agents and via social media” says Trafalgar general manager, Scott Cleaver.
“We got a very strong sense of what is important to today’s traveller, and the overwhelming sentiment that it needs to be with all due respect to the local way of life and support of small business in New Zealand’s regional communities.”
Based on the feedback of Kiwi travellers, Trafalgar recently curated a Near Not Far Limited Series for guided holidays, with the intent to encourage Kiwis to support local tourism and explore their country in ways they normally wouldn’t.
One experience includes the seven day Winterless North trip, which ventures beyond the typical tourist route from Auckland through to the Bay of Islands and works with small local businesses and those new to tourism. Among the list of activities, travellers can participate in an exclusive seed to cup coffee experience and get a dose of kiwi innovation with behind the scenes viewings of pottery and large scale creative projects.
“Feedback we’ve received is that home-grown experiences are the future of travel globally and is something we’ve focused on for more than a decade with Trafalgar’s industry-leading Be My Guest programme.”
“It’s these culturally immersive, genuine local experiences that New Zealanders want to uncover in this revival of travel, and the foundation for how we’ve built a new limited series of guided holidays for kiwis, by kiwis.”