No place like home for Kiwis on holiday

Tourists at Akaroa Wharf. Christchurch was the top domestic destination for Kiwis in a new Mastercard survey. Photo / Supplied

While many New Zealanders dream of visiting London, Paris or Tokyo, we're increasingly choosing domestic destinations for our holidays.

A new survey from Mastercard found 75 per cent of respondents chose to travel within New Zealand for leisure in the last year, while 93 per cent planned to take a domestic trip in the next year.

"It seems that when it comes to planning a holiday Kiwis prefer no place like home, said Peter Chisnall, Country Manager for Mastercard New Zealand and Pacific Islands.

"When planning a shorter trip, like a long weekend getaway or trip during the school holidays, Kiwis can look to take advantage of the world class destinations on offer in our beautiful country, making domestic travel an attractive and cost-effective option."

It seems visiting family, friends and other loved ones was the top motivation for travel (31 per cent), followed by sight-seeing (23 per cent) and rest and relaxation (16 per cent).

The top domestic destinations were revealed to be Christchurch (23 per cent), Auckland (15 per cent) and Wellington (15 per cent).

When it came to international travel, our close neighbour Australia was unsurprisingly the top international destination for Kiwis (30 per cent), followed by the USA (9 per cent) and the UK (five per cent).

London was the top dream overseas destination for respondents. Photo / 123RF

Over half of the New Zealanders surveyed said the exchange rate influenced their travel plans with the top method of payment while travelling was credit card (43 per cent).

If money was no barrier, the dream destinations for Kiwis are London (29 per cent), New York (26 per cent) and Paris (23 per cent), with Tokyo the most popular Asia Pacific destination (21 per cent).