Iran War: Resilient Kiwi travellers turn to South America, foreign tourists keen to see NZ
Monday, 16 March 2026
Kiwi travellers are not easily dissuaded to cancel their travel plans as war continues in the Middle East, and are instead opting to change destination or reschedule for a later date.
And travel companies tell The Post New Zealand itself has seen an upswing in popularity amid the US and Israel war on Iran, which has seen violence break out in the region and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, an important global oil shipping route.
As the closure of the strait enters its third week, oil is not as readily available and emergency reserves have been opened. With supply constrained, prices have surged to over US$100 per barrel and in turn so has the price of jet fuel.
Airlines have responded by extra charges added onto flights, and Air New Zealand has cut back 1100 flights as jet fuel prices soar.
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Flight Centre New Zealand country manager Heidi Walker said airfares had already increased following reduced capacity and changes in the price of fuel, in response to the Middle East conflict, but it was not stopping Kiwis from booking travel, and most were not cancelling upcoming trips.
“There are the travellers that will travel and find a destination to travel through, and then we have got the customers who are re-routing, who are very determined to go on holiday, who are reinvesting their money on routes that will get them to the end point,” Walker told The Post.
“A lot of people are asking for advice about whether or not they should still be travelling. What does it mean for tours and cruises? We definitely have been busy over the last couple of weeks, just reassuring New Zealanders.”
Re-routing flights was the majority of queries it was working through currently, and Walker said the travel agency was encouraging people not to rush into cancelling if their travel planned was six months or more out.
“It’s sometimes the route that some aircraft or travellers might be taking right now, that's a little uncertain, not their whole holiday,” she said.
“As we see flight availability be so full, if you are to cancel, and then you want to travel, that can become a lot more costly.”
Flight Centre was working through a minimal number of queries from customers wanting to cancel their holidays. Meanwhile, most were either wanting to rebook to new destinations or somewhere closer to home, or seeking alternative routes to get to the same destination intended.
“People are continuing to travel, but it is costing them more.”
Walker said there had seen a spike in interest in people booking holidays to South America, to places such as Buenos Aires, in the last two weeks. “That's been exciting - to see South America and some of those destinations that have been important, but people re-prioritising them, and like the Galapagos Islands and Antarctica, we’re seeing inquiries for different locations and different adventures coming through.”
Despite the cost of fuel impacting the affordability of travel, Intrepid Travel New Zealand country manager Simon McKearney said Kiwis’ desire to travel had not been muted following the Middle East conflict.
Intrepid, which deals with both inbound and outbound bookings, operates tours throughout the world and has put its Egypt Jordan, Oman and Saudi Arabia tours on hold. It will resume its Egypt trips from April 1.
“Egypt and Jordan had been a real success story, and for all travel companies those destinations have bounced back really well. There's a lot of visitation there, but it's more the air connectivity that's proving difficult,” McKearney said.
Airlines based in the Middle East such as Emirates, Qatar and Ethihad were currently operating limited flights in the region.
“People are cancelling, but the vast majority are just rebooking, or pushing their trips out; that tells us that the typical Kiwi has got that resilience and is still determined to travel,” McKearney said.
On the inbound tourism front, Intrepid had seen a spike in bookings to New Zealand, and not a single cancellation for the country, he said.
“We braced for the worst, but people have found different ways of getting here, rerouted themselves through Southeast Asia, China or the US. We haven't had any disruption to tours, which has been a real positive. When they get here, they feel pretty safe, and we see that in the rebookings as well. Even Australians are now looking to potentially put a longer haul trip on hold and take the shorter destination trip to New Zealand.”
McKearney said it was good news for New Zealand, and there could well be a positive flow-on impact for the economy, although that could change once increased fuel prices had flown through to all increased airfares.
“We live in the positive direction that we might see this as unintended consequence.”
Intrepid had seen Kiwis rebooking trips to Southeast Asia, places such as Vietnam, and for those with Europe tours, re-routeing how they get there.
“Travel’s that thing we lost for a period of a few years through Covid, and it's a really hard thing to tell people now that there is another interruption. They seem to be a lot more strong willed about ‘No, we still want to travel’, they still want to find a way to get their break. It’s interesting times.”