Increased holidays and a buoyant economy have helped to boost domestic tourism spending back up to levels last reached five years ago.
Latest Ministry of Tourism research shows Kiwis spent $7.96 billion on travel and sightseeing within New Zealand in the year to September 2007 - just belowa high of $8 billion reached in 2003.
Tourism Ministry senior research analyst Martin Svehla said a raft of cheap international airfares saw domestic spending drop off in the years after 2003 but after a big downturn local tourism had now picked up again.
Overnight trips increased 7.4 per cent to 15.5 million while the number of day trips increased by 2.5 per cent to 29.4 million.
At the same time the number of New Zealanders travelling overseas increased by 4.1 per cent.
Svehla said the growth could be linked to people having more time to travel - due to the introduction of the four-week holiday in April last year and more money to spend because the economy was doing well and there are low levels of unemployment.
However, he said, the amount of spending per overnight stay had also increased showing that travel, accommodation and activities were also getting more expensive.
"Yes we are more active but it also seems to be more expensive."
Spending on overnight trips was up 10.5 per cent to $5.2 billion, while the cost of day trips were up 10.3 per cent to $2.8 billion.
Overall spending increased by 10.4 per cent on the previous year.
Svehla said cheaper domestic airfares were also likely to have had some impact with the percentage of people travelling by aircraft up from 14 per cent to 17 per cent, although new competitor Pacific Blue did not launch until November.
The domestic travel survey is a phone survey of 15,000 residents undertaken throughout the year.
