Are We There Yet? Family Holiday Trends Over The Last 12 Months

Anyone else feel as though April has come early this year? Autumn is in the air, the Easter Bunny has come and gone, and families around New Zealand are currently spending a lot of quality time together as school holidays have already kicked in. Yep, while it may seem like the Christmas holidays just happened, apparently that was a good couple of months ago now.  

With the kids no longer bound to their classrooms, many families are choosing to take this quality time together on the road (or through the air) for a well-deserved holiday. But coordinating a family holiday on your own can be quite the challenge, especially when you’re trying to accommodate the interests of different generations.  

That’s where we come in. 

Over the past 12 months, our Flight Centre stores have made more family bookings than grains of sand left in your car after a long day at the beach, so it’s safe to say we know a thing or two about organising the perfect family getaway! Want to know what we’ve discovered about how Kiwi families are travelling? Read on to find out what our Flight Centre store booking data is telling us... 

As anyone who’s ever travelled with children knows, there are some destinations more suited to family visitors than others. So, while the incredible food, relaxing massages and tranquil beaches drew a large chunk of our solo, couple and small group travellers to Thailand over the last 12 months, our family booking data paints a different picture. 

Based on our store booking data for the past 12 months, the 10 most popular destinations for family travellers are... 

1. New Zealand 

2. Australia 

3. Fiji 

4. United Kingdom 

5. Philippines 

6. United States 

7. Cook Islands 

8. India 

9. South Africa 

10. Samoa 

It’s not too surprising that many of our families have opted to keep their travel plans close to home over the last year. Almost 25% of the family bookings made for the 10 destinations above were attributed to New Zealand. And where in New Zealand are all of these families going? Well, while it might feel like every influencer and their dog has been to Queenstown, Auckland scored over 40% of our family bookings. 

Other New Zealand hot spots for families over the last year included Christchurch, Wellington and Queenstown. Need some inspiration for your next trip? The kids will love exploring the International Antarctic Centre in Christchurch, visiting Weta Workshop in Wellington or taking a thrill ride on the luge in Queenstown.  

Of the families who decided to book holidays outside of New Zealand over the last 12 months, Australia proved to be the most popular destination, scoring over 20% of family bookings made for the top 10 destinations, followed by Fiji with close to 15%. Brisbane, Sydney and the Gold Coast took out the top spots for Australian getaways over the past 12 months - with Kiwis either visiting family in Aussie or making the most of the sunshine and theme parks! 

But not all Kiwi families kept to the southern hemisphere, with the United Kingdom also proving popular. Shout out to anyone who’s ever made the long-haul journey from New Zealand to London with small children – it's no small feat but totally worth the journey! Mind-blowing museums, West End shows, Hamleys (the world’s oldest toy shop), Buckingham Palace – London is an endless cultural adventure for family travellers. While London definitely scored most of our UK bookings, families also had their sights set on Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham.  

Looking for something entertaining for the kids to watch while you're on the road? Try our Kids Talk video series on YouTube!

The United States also made the list, with Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood attracting lots of families booking Los Angeles this year. Honolulu, New York and San Francisco were also popular options. And for those looking for something a little more tropical (and short-haul), destinations like the Cook Islands and Samoa were also attractive places to escape the hustle and bustle with the family.  

It’s no use us sitting here and trying to pretend that the cost of travel hasn’t gone up over the last couple of years. The cost of everything has gone up, and unfortunately travel is no exception. There are a number of factors which have contributed to these increasing prices: high demand, low availability, high fuel prices for aircraft and the huge losses incurred by the travel industry over the pandemic being some of them.  

To help give you a rough idea of how much more you might expect to pay for a family holiday these days, we’ve compared the average amount spent by families over the last 12 months with the average amount spent over the same period in 2019/2020. For domestic travel and travel to Australia, we’ve seen an approximate increase of $1,700 for families. For those looking for tropical Fiji escapes, families have been spending approximately $900 more than before. Want to jump on the UK trend? On average, families have been spending almost $3,900 more than they used to.  

But don’t let that figure freak you out too much! It must also be said that families planning a trip to the United Kingdom are also typically travelling for longer now than they were pre-pandemic, so this would also be a major contributing factor for the price increase. Make up for lost time, no matter what it costs, right?! 

It can be hard to know how far in advance to book a holiday. Book too early and you may see prices drop (on that note, did you know that Flight Centre offers Price Drop Protection on your flights when you add our Captain’s Value or Captain’s Plus Package to your booking?) but book too late and you may miss out altogether. It’s a fine line to tread! 

On average, families planning domestic travel over the past 12 months booked their trips approximately 40 days in advance. Finding themselves at the mercy of school holiday timings, most families don’t have the luxury or flexibility of booking a spontaneous holiday whenever the mood strikes! Families planning trips to Australia typically booked slightly earlier, on average about 70 days (or almost two and a half months) in advance. 

There’s a big difference between organising a quick weekend trip to Auckland and organising an epic once-in-a-lifetime family escapade overseas! So, for destinations in the northern hemisphere that require a tad more planning for Kiwi travellers, we’ve unsurprisingly seen families booking much further out. The average time between a family booking a trip to the United Kingdom and their departure date over the last 12 months has been 130 days. For the United States, slightly less with 117 days. Other popular destinations like Fiji and South Africa saw average booking times of 110 and 135 days in advance, respectively. 

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All this talk of family travel got you inspired to pack up the suitcases and start planning your next adventure?

Here’s a family-friendly attraction in each of the top 10 destinations to get you started! 

1. Take a Hobbiton™ Movie Set Tour in New Zealand 

2. Go to one of the many Gold Coast theme parks in Australia 

3. Go snorkelling in Fiji 

4. Visit Edinburgh Castle in the United Kingdom 

5. Check out Boracay Island in the Philippines 

6. Experience the magic of Disneyland in the United States 

7. Take a glass-bottom boat ride with Captain Tamas Lagoon Cruizes in the Cook Islands 

8. Watch a puppet show at one the palaces in Jaipur, India 

9. Go on a safari in South Africa (make sure you ask us about the best ethical and sustainable safari options first) 

10. Check out the Alofaaga Blowholes in Samoa 

Disclaimer: The information in this report is based on the family store booking data currently available to us. Data is based on booking date, not travel dates, for the period 1 April 2022 – 31 March 2023.