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Source: Reuters
A flight comparison site says Australia and New Zealand are seeing a resurgence of interest from the British travelling public.
In its Travel Trends 2012 report, Skyscanner says flight searches to New Zealand in 2011 were up by 35.4% (making it the fourth biggest rising destination in the report) and flight searches to Australia were up 24.9%, making it the 20th biggest rising destination.
Skyscanner analysed its data on user flight searches to produce the report on global travel trends.
The Rugby World Cup significantly boosted travel to New Zealand with the total number of visitors arriving for the rugby now confirmed at 133,200 against a forecast of just 95,000 for July through to the end of October.
Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler said it is a fantastic result.
"We promoted the New Zealand message hard around the tournament and so expected to see this sort of growth from traditional rugby-loving nations like Australia (up 17,200 people, 21.2%), South Africa (up 4,900 people, 417.4%) the UK (up 2,800)," Bowler said.
Officials expect the increase in interest to have a knock-on effect for tourist visits to New Zealand in 2012.
Australia's boost in interest is thought to be partly attributed to advertising campaigns with partner airlines such as Emirates and Singapore Airlines targeting the UK market.
