Kiwi holidays hit by Middle East conflict

About a fifth of New Zealanders have changed, delayed or cancelled their holiday plans due to the Middle East conflict and its wider impacts on fuel prices, new research suggests. 

As the school holidays approach, a nationally-representative survey of 530 people on research platform Ideally found 21% of people had altered their holiday plans in response to the current situation. 

Of this group, 37% said they’d chosen to delay their holiday, 24% said they were now planning to travel in New Zealand rather than going overseas, and  nearly one-third had decided to cancel. 

Westpac New Zealand card data indicates customer spending on travel (including car rental, airline and tourist attraction spend) has fallen by around 11% since the start of the Middle East conflict.  

Meanwhile, the bank’s personal lending data also shows a slight downturn, with applications for loans for travel purposes down around 5% in April year-on-year and down around 10% in May year-on-year.  

Westpac Managing Director of Product, Sustainability & Marketing, Sarah Hearn said the Westpac research showed just 18% of people with school-aged children reported they had taken a holiday or were planning to.   

“It’s not surprising that some people are responding to the uncertainty of the current environment by putting travel plans on hold or, if they are going on holiday, cutting back a bit on spending." 

“We hope families with school-aged children can enjoy a bit of quality time together over the July holidays – even if it’s a staycation rather than heading further afield. 

“We know many New Zealanders are finding the economic climate tough – throughout the country, households are continuing to grapple with the higher costs of fuel and other essentials."  

At the end of March, nearly two-thirds of Westpac’s home loan customers were more than three months ahead on their repayments, up slightly on six months ago.  The median customer was 10.6 months ahead. 

“On the whole, our customers are well positioned to deal with the uncertain economic environment,” Ms Hearn said. 

“We’re keen to help people to achieve their goals, whether that’s saving up for a holiday, putting together the deposit for a first home or working hard to pay down a mortgage.”