October has been great for New Zealand demand and sales. The world is still in a bit of a mess with Middle East and Ukraine wars not looking like they are ending any time soon and their effects are being felt far more strongly lately with very high fuel costs everywhere.
Fortunately, the main customer base for travellers to New Zealand from UK/Europe are older and more affluent and they are still travelling. The downside is that these customers are risk averse, so they are not keen on going via the Middle East and the remaining routes have high airfares/low availability.
November and December:
November will be a big month starting with an Air New Zealand agent event that I have been invited to as the only supplier! There will be 30 Air NZ/TNZ and product managers for the evening. Then it is World Travel Market where I have a lot of appointments followed by the Travel Counsellors conference in Manchester and Tourism Australia Marketplace in London. Overall, by the middle of November I should have caught up with a big chunk of the product managers in UK/Europe/Scandi. There will also be staff trainings including Travelbag and brochure distribution.
December is quieter so far but there is plenty of time to fill the spaces with staff training, the PATA Christmas lunch function, etc.