ANZ Travellers Won't Cancel Summer Trips — They'll Just Spend Less

Fifty-eight percent of Australians and 64% of New Zealanders still intend to take a holiday this summer, even though roughly four in five of them say rising travel costs worry them. That's the headline from the Allianz Partners Global Travel Confidence Index 2026, conducted by Ipsos, and it frames a market where sellers face demand that bends but doesn't break.

The anxiety is real. Some 81% of Australian travellers and 82% of New Zealanders expressed concern about rising costs — yet intention to travel stayed above the halfway mark in both markets. For agents and operators, that gap between worry and booking is the story.

How are travellers absorbing the cost pressure?

Mostly by trimming elsewhere, not by staying home. Roughly 70% of Australians and 71% of New Zealanders surveyed said they're cutting non-essential everyday spending to afford their trips. A further 59% of Australians and 57% of New Zealanders plan to scale back the holiday itself — shorter, closer, cheaper — while still going.

"Australians and New Zealanders refuse to give up their summer holidays – they're a non-negotiable," said Allianz Partners Australia CEO Chris McHugh. "Rather than cancelling plans altogether, travellers are finding smart ways to make their trips work within tighter budgets, whether that's cutting back on everyday spending, choosing destinations closer to home, or scaling back on luxury extras."

The takeaway: volume holds, but per-booking value is under pressure, and the trade should plan product accordingly.

Where does the money go?

Anticipated average spend runs to AU$4,991 for Australians and AU$3,715 for New Zealanders — the two highest figures among the five markets surveyed, which also include Brazil, Japan and Canada. Allianz Partners attributes that partly to the longer distances ANZ travellers must fly to reach international destinations.

But the top-line spend doesn't signal a luxury surge. Sixty-five percent of Australians and 74% of New Zealanders said they don't intend to spend more on premium experiences. Upsell opportunity exists, but the base is trading down, not up.

Is the demand shifting domestic?

The survey suggests yes, modestly. Domestic travel is the stated preference for 32% of Australians and 39% of New Zealanders. Allianz Partners reads this as a cost-driven shift toward holidays within home countries rather than a structural change in appetite for international trips.

For domestic operators and DMOs, that's a tailwind; for long-haul sellers, it means competing harder on price and value framing.

What about risk and insurance?

Climate concerns now shape planning for a clear majority. Extreme weather and other environmental risks worry 59% of Australian travellers and 56% of New Zealanders, and most factor those risks into holiday decisions — 69% in Australia, 67% in New Zealand.

Safety concerns around crime, terrorism, theft or scams register with 65% of Australians. New Zealanders, at 52%, rank among the least safety-anxious of the five markets surveyed.

Insurance attachment looks solid but not universal: 63% of Australians and 59% of New Zealanders have bought or are likely to buy travel cover for their upcoming holiday.

"It's encouraging to see that more than half of Australian and New Zealand travellers recognise the value of travel insurance, especially in a climate of rising uncertainty," McHugh said, adding that travellers should secure "the right cover" before departure.

Note what the figures also imply: roughly two in five ANZ travellers remain outside the insurance funnel. That's an unresolved gap for a distributor like Allianz Partners, whose CEO is doing the talking here.

The bottom line for sellers

The data sketches a resilient but value-hunting consumer: committed to the annual trip, hostile to luxury premiums, increasingly domestic-leaning and insurance-aware. Allianz Partners has skin in this game as an insurance seller, so the framing deserves that caveat — but the Ipsos-conducted numbers point the same way demand has been moving across the region. Sellers who price for closer-to-home, mid-market trips with easy insurance attach are positioned for the summer the survey describes.