Kiwi interest in US travel drops off

Every cloud has a silver lining, so they say. Trump's shocking victory could make the US a cheaper place for Kiwis to travel. Photo / Getty

Kiwis are less interested in travelling to the United States following the turbulent election and the shock result of Donald Trump's victory according to search data from Cheapflights.

Searches for flights to the US have dropped by 25.3 per cent over the last week as the turbulent election reached its crescendo. This is part of a larger decrease in travel interest with searches down over 55.7 per cent compared to the last few months.

Other campaign milestones saw an uptake in travel interest. Nathan Graham, regional sales manager at Cheapflights said that when Clinton and Trump were respectively nominated by their parties there was an increase in searches for flights, up 13.75 per cent from the previous week.

"Similarly, searches for travel down under from the US lifted over the same periods - 11.2 per cent and 8.2 per cent respectively," he said.

Graham says the dollar improving against the greenback is good news for Kiwi travellers.

"The key takeaway for kiwi travellers is to jump onto a good deal when they see it, as who knows how long it will last," he said.

"This is good news for Kiwis heading over to the US over the next few months, and could give travellers as much as 20 per cent extra band for their buck."

House of Travel is also lauding a silver lining for New Zealanders from Trump's win in the US election. The Kiwi dollar could take you further than ever on your holiday.

"The New Zealand dollar is predicted to rise while the US dollar may weaken following Trump's win, giving Kiwis more bang for their buck in North America," said House of Travel commercial director Brent Thomas.

"New Zealanders have been seeing benefits of a strong Kiwi dollar for some time and this has helped an increase in demand for travel to the US. While Kiwis booked to travel to the USA in the coming days and weeks may well also see their New Zealand dollar go a little further than before."

Not everyone is looking on the bright side however. The unexpected result has seen a huge surge in search interest from American's looking for one-way flights to Canada.

Andrew Shelton, managing director of Cheapflights, said that just overnight searches for one-way flights from the US to Canada increased by 133 per cent compared to a month ago.

That search volume continued into the morning, with a 1000 per cent interest in one-way flights to Canada compared to the last four weeks.