In its first Travel Trends 2012 report, flight comparison site Skyscanner has revealed that Australia and New Zealand are seeing a resurgence of interest from British travellers.
Skyscanner, which has more than five million users a month, analysed its data on user flight searches to produce the report on global travel trends.
Flight searches to New Zealand were up by 35.4 percent in 2011, making it the fourth biggest rising destination in Skyscanner’s report.
Flight searches to Australia were up 24.9 percent, making it the 20th biggest rising destination.
The popularity of the Rugby World Cup 2011 is expected to have a knock-on effect for tourist visits to New Zealand in 2012.
When Germany hosted the 2006 World Cup soccer tournament, tourism bosses reported an increase in travel to the country for the following 24 months.
The boost in interest in Australia is partly attributed to advertising campaigns with partner airlines targeting the UK market.
