Hawke's Bay residents will stay home in droves this summer and enjoy a "staycation".
According to data released by the Fresh Information Company, between November 2013 and February 2014 , 75,348 Hawke's Bay residents surveyed stayed home.
For those who headed away, the most popular destination was Wellington for an estimated 56,695. This was followed by Auckland with an estimated 44,391 Hawke's Bay visitors.
Fresh Information managing director Shane Vuletich said this year should be similar to the last.
"Domestic tourism is pretty stable over time. There is a pretty well established pattern with people fleeing to the beach and to baches and that is just going to continue, there will be no change in that."
Mr Vuletich said Kiwis should expect busy holiday spots with lots of overseas visitors.
"I would expect this summer to be a big one because the economy is quite buoyant. It will be up a little bit from last year, around 3-5 per cent ... Where there will be a radical change is the level of international visitors ... this summer it will be the strongest ever for overseas visitors, which reinforces the domestic tourism feeling. The combined effect of domestic and international is going to be quite good for beach areas around New Zealand."
Spending habits changed markedly in summer, he said, with retail, food and beverage spending declining.
"People aren't spending much on retail when they are on holiday and they generally stock up at a local supermarket on food before heading to the beach and survive on that over their time away ... the average spend per night away from home is actually lower than other times of the year.
"Most people, they go to the beach and camp or stay in a bach or with friends and family and don't spend that much. They tend to fish for their food or cook sausages on the barbecue and tend not to consume the same way as in the winter time."
Hawke's Bay resident Alex Van Der Loos said she would have to work during the Christmas period but her family would go north for their annual summer holiday.
"My family will be heading up north to Ruakaka where they have a beach house. They go tuatua fishing, which are like big pipi, they go surfcasting for kahawai and snapper and generally just relax, read, go to the beach and swim."
Hawke's Bay residents staying close to home can likewise expect "tourists and Aucklanders" on local beaches.
In 2013, 186,800 Kiwis headed to Hawke's Bay for the summer while 240,100 travelled to Hawke's Bay to visit family and friends.
Auckland residents were the largest group of visitors to Hawke's Bay at an average of 127,869 holiday-makers. The second largest group of visitors at 119,565 travelled to the region from Wellington.
Of the 524,800 visitors who were asked to score the region on a scale of 1-10, "how likely are you to recommend Hawke's Bay as a place to visit?", 52 per cent indicated they would recommend it while 29 per cent were neutral.