AA Traveller intensifies focus on domestic travel

25 October 2016

AA Traveller intensifies focus on domestic travel

More information, more experiences, more choices and easier ways to book New Zealand accommodation and activities will soon be unveiled to travellers.

AA Traveller has been involved in New Zealand’s tourism industry for decades. Alongside printing more than three million maps, guides and specialist publications every year, it’s built a strong presence on the web – both to provide information and to facilitate accommodation bookings.

The AA is also behind the iconic 101 Must Do’s, which continue to be popular source of travel ideas and information for Kiwis.

The website, aatraveller.co.nz, has made changes over the last two years to improve both user experience and provide a low cost marketing alternative to New Zealand accommodation providers. One of the changes includes offering travellers a ‘best price around’ guarantee for participating accommodation providers. AA Traveller also offers commission-free options for properties.

Work is underway to make the website even better. Starting in mid-November, the website will be updated with a fresh design and new, inspiring content capturing some of the best New Zealand has to offer to provide travellers with a rich, dynamic resource to assist with planning trips. Traveller feedback will also be part of the refreshed site.

Early in 2017, the next step is to relaunch the site’s booking engine enabling travellers to easily plan and book both leisure and accommodation on one site. To do this AA Traveller has partnered with destination management software provider Bookeasy, to offer activity bookings alongside its current accommodation offerings.

AA Traveller Digital Manager Barry Sadlier says while the website has improved significantly over the last two years, its relaunch is a major step forward.

“With Tourism NZ focused on bringing International visitors to New Zealand AA Traveller’s goal is to help develop domestic travel in line with the Tourism Industry Association’s Tourism 2025 framework, which aims to grow the domestic tourism sector into a $22.6 billion a year industry by 2025,” Mr Sadlier says.

Mr Sadlier says the old slogan of ‘don’t leave town until you have seen the country’ isn’t a concept followed by everyone for a huge variety of reasons.

“By getting a little slicker, encouraging more interaction with people and making it easy to book activities and accommodation, we’re looking to motivate New Zealanders to start checking out places a little closer to home more frequently alongside bigger trips elsewhere they might have in mind.”

Mr Sadlier says the partnership with Bookeasy, which has a wealth of experience working with more than 200 destination partners and 45,000 tourism operators across Australia, will strongly support AA Traveller’s revamped web offering to Kiwis.

AA Traveller has helped Kiwis see the best of New Zealand for more than 100 years. It publishes and distributes more than three million guides and maps every year, and provides travellers with a wealth of information to inspire and assist them in planning travel and to make bookings at more than 1600 properties on aatraveller.co.nz or at any AA Centre.

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