The Destinate Weekly Roundup w/c 21 September 2026
There’s a lot happening across tourism sales and distribution at the moment, but a few developments this week are particularly worth paying attention to.
The biggest theme for me is competition for the traveller - and for the people influencing what they book.
Australians are travelling overseas in record numbers, UK agents are still performing strongly, major destinations are investing heavily in trade relationships, and online distribution continues to consolidate.
Here’s what I think tourism businesses should have on their radar this week.
Australians are travelling - the challenge is winning their share
Australians made more than 12.7 million overseas trips in 2025/26, around 32 percent more than a decade ago.
New Zealand remains their second most popular overseas destination, with almost 1.5 million trips, but the interesting number is Japan.
Australian travel to Japan has more than doubled compared with pre-Covid levels and is now approaching one million trips a year.
That tells us something important.
Australians aren’t deciding whether to travel. They’re deciding where to go, and New Zealand is competing against an increasingly appealing range of destinations.
For New Zealand tourism businesses - particularly those targeting repeat Australian visitors - proximity alone isn’t enough.
We need to give people a reason to come back and experience something they haven’t already done.
Regional experiences, great hosts, unusual access, food, conservation, adventure and products that feel distinctly New Zealand all become increasingly important.
More information: Australian Bureau of Statistics – Overseas travel trends
The Australian travel trade is getting a LOT of attention
If you’ve been attending trade events recently, you’ll already know how busy the Australian market has become.
Last week VisitBritain completed a major trade mission through Sydney and Melbourne, putting dozens of British tourism suppliers in front of more than 300 Australian buyers and advisors.
That followed an Auckland workshop attended by more than 150 travel advisors.
The important takeaway for New Zealand operators isn’t really about Britain.
It’s about the level of competition for an Australian advisor’s attention.
Every destination wants them. Every supplier wants them. And they are being presented with an enormous amount of product information.
That means turning up at a trade event is only the beginning.
The real question is:
Can the advisor find and understand your product six months later when the right enquiry arrives?
Keep trade information concise. Make email subject lines searchable. Clearly explain who your experience is for, where it fits into an itinerary, what makes it different and how to book it.
Useful beats clever.
More information: VisitBritain – Australia and New Zealand trade mission
UK travel agents continue to perform strongly
There’s another useful signal coming out of the UK.
Advantage Travel Partnership reported that member revenue and average booking values are both 9 percent ahead year-on-year in 2026.
Long-haul revenue is also up 9 percent, while touring is performing particularly strongly, with revenue up 22 percent.
That matters for New Zealand.
Touring customers are naturally more inclined to move through regions, which creates opportunities for tourism businesses outside the traditional gateway destinations.
It’s also another reminder that travel agents haven’t disappeared simply because AI and online booking have become more important.
For long-haul and more complicated holidays, professional advice remains highly relevant.
For an operator, the opportunity is to make your experience very easy for that advisor to put into an itinerary.
Don’t simply describe the product.
Explain where it fits.
“Two hours from Rotorua”, “ideal on the way to Tongariro”, “works well on a two-night Taupō stay” or “suitable for clients travelling between Hawke’s Bay and the central North Island” can be far more useful to a seller than another paragraph describing the scenery.
More information: Travel Weekly – Advantage reports 9 percent revenue growth
OTA concentration is becoming hard to ignore
A new European hotel distribution study has found that 85.4 percent of OTA hotel bookings are now controlled by Booking Holdings and Expedia Group.
Booking Holdings alone accounts for almost 69 percent.
The research is focused on accommodation, but there’s a wider lesson here for tourism operators.
Digital marketplaces can provide fantastic reach, but increasing concentration also gives those platforms significant influence over commission, pricing, promotional programmes, rankings and customer relationships.
The study also found that 51 percent of hotels had experienced OTAs undercutting their rates at least occasionally, while 44 percent reported multi-sourcing — where rates or inventory are redistributed through other intermediaries.
For small tourism businesses, this reinforces the importance of understanding the real cost of each distribution channel.
An OTA that charges 20 percent commission may still be a profitable source of incremental business.
Equally, a channel can look attractive until you add commission, promotional discounts, payment costs, cancellation exposure and margin erosion.
There isn’t one “right” distribution model.
But you should know what each booking actually costs you.
More information: HOTREC – European Hotel Distribution Study 2026
European package travel rules are getting tougher
The EU has also recently adopted updated package travel rules designed to strengthen consumer protection.
The changes include clearer information requirements and stronger protections around package cancellations, refunds and insolvency.
While a New Zealand operator isn’t suddenly governed by European legislation simply because it hosts a German traveller, European tour operators and wholesalers do have obligations they need to meet.
And those requirements inevitably influence the contracts they negotiate with suppliers.
For New Zealand tourism businesses working with European trade, I’d expect cancellation clauses, refund terms and force-majeure provisions to continue receiving closer scrutiny.
Clear and commercially sensible terms make you easier to contract.
More information: Council of the European Union – revised Package Travel Directive
Business events: now is a good time to get your product in front of the right people
IMEX America takes place in Las Vegas from 13–15 October, bringing together international meeting, incentive and conference buyers from around the world.
Tourism New Zealand will have a New Zealand delegation there, including DMCs, convention bureaux, RTOs, accommodation providers and other industry partners.
Most smaller activity operators won’t attend IMEX themselves.
But that doesn’t mean they can’t benefit from it.
If your experience is suitable for incentive groups, executive groups, partner programmes or pre- and post-conference travel, now is a very good time to make sure the people representing New Zealand have your latest product information.
Keep it simple:
capacity
duration
private options
transport
group pricing or trade rates
wet-weather arrangements
one great image
one clear reason the experience is special.
Don’t rely on someone remembering what you told them six months ago.
Give them something they can sell.
More information: Tourism New Zealand – IMEX America 2026
So what would I be doing this week?
If I was running a tourism business, I’d be looking at three things.
First, I’d check whether my Australian proposition gives repeat visitors a genuinely
new reason to choose New Zealand again.
Second, I’d review my trade material and ask whether an advisor who met me months ago could quickly find, understand and sell my product today.
And third, I’d take another look at distribution costs.
Not just commission.
The actual cost of acquiring the booking.
That includes discounts, payment fees, promotions, cancellations, admin and the margin you ultimately retain.
Because as distribution becomes increasingly complex, understanding where your most profitable customers come from is going to matter just as much as generating more bookings.
And that’s probably the biggest theme I’m taking from this week:
There is plenty of travel demand. The challenge is making sure your business is easy to discover, easy to recommend and commercially worthwhile to sell.
The Destinate Weekly Roundup is a regular look at the tourism sales, marketing, visitor market and distribution developments I think are worth paying attention to - and what they could mean for tourism businesses.
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