Travel&Vacation

Statistics New Zealand figures showed a 4.3 percent decline in national accommodation sales for the month on a year-on-year basis. Most regions experienced a downturn, with Bay of Plenty, Otago and Auckland suffering the biggest drops. Alongside Hawke's Bay and Gisborne, Wellington posted an increase in guest nights. The western Taranaki, Wanganui and Manawatu regions also recorded small increases. While November figures were most likely boosted by political supporters and National Party entourages after the October election, the city held up resoundingly well all year. Wellington has had a single month of declining year-on-year visitor numbers in 2008, with August down 2.5 per cent on the previous August. Positively Wellington Tourism chief executive David Perks said
(Read the full post about ‘Capital tourism bucks trend’…)

Statistics published across the Tasman report that New Zealand is by far the favourite destination for the 5.75 million Australians who travelled overseas in the past 12 months. In the year to the end of August, 914,000 Australians crossed the ditch. This nearly matched the number of Australians who went to the United States and Britain, the second and third most popular destinations. Australians account for 40 per cent of all tourists coming to New Zealand. Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton said he expected the number of Australian visitors to hold up better than numbers from the US, Britain, Japan and China. Falling currency values had made the rest of the world more expensive for Australians and New Zealanders wanting to travel. However, the global economic crisis and
(Read the full post about ‘Aussie tourists flock across ditch’…)

The airline's latest operating statistics show it carried 1.8 per cent fewer passengers in August than a year earlier, but since its June 30 balance date, group yields were up 7.3 per cent. Short haul yields were up 6 per cent and long haul up 11 per cent. Air NZ said in August that it would break even for the year to June 2009 if the average price of fuel was no higher than US$140 a barrel. That compares with a $218 million profit last year. Goldman Sachs JBWere aviation analyst Marcus Curley said while profits were materially down on last year, jet fuel costs had been lower at about US$137 a barrel and yields were stronger in the early months, putting the airline ahead. "They are tracking slightly ahead of making no money", in line with market consensus, he said. But
(Read the full post about ‘Fewer people, bigger profit’…)

Frequent flyer programs are continually subject to questions of value. Which is as it should be: If the programs don’t offer consumers sufficient rewards, or rebates, or extra services, then it’s not worth the considerable energy and even more considerable frustration to bother participating in them.

And a key component of the overall value proposition concerns the worth of frequent flyer miles. Assuming that the average price of a round-trip coach ticket within the U.S. is around $350, and that a comparable frequent flyer award ticket can be had for 25,000 miles, the value of a mile would be 1.4¢. Factor in the hassle factor of obtaining a free ticket, due to capacity controls on award seats, and that value drops somewhat. Let’s say it’s 1.2¢.

What if you could double that
(Read the full post about ‘Dining certificates make appetizing mileage awards’…)