Susan is part of a growing movement.  She and her friends grew up in Auckland and enjoyed a comfortable, middle-class upbringing.  Her parents would take her family on yearly vacations, but usually they travelled within New Zealand.  Two or three times during her childhood, they undertook a trip to Australia, staying in Melbourne hotels or in Sydney, but that was the extent of their international travel.  Something as exotic as Europe was out of the question.  Susan always wondered what London hotels would be like, but she didn’t find out until she was in her twenties.

           

Susan and her roommates graduated from the University of Auckland several years ago.  During their time on campus, they’d been exposed to a great diversity of cultures and developed an appetite for visiting other countries in search of cultural enlightenment, culinary experiences and viewing their natural and artistic treasures.  Suddenly Melbourne hotels didn’t seem so exotic.  They made plans to backpack across Europe on graduation but they never would have been able to afford it if Susan hadn’t found discounted flights on expedia.co.nz.

 

After returning from a month in Europe, Susan had the travel bug.  She stayed with her friends in hostels for the most part due to their shoestring budget, but she’d seen London hotels that were as elegant looking as embassies and Paris hotels that personified chic.  She was fortunate enough to land a good paying job and immediately began saving for a return trip to Europe, one where she’d savor world class restaurants, tour the renowned galleries and museums and soak up the culture.  Thanks to her iPhone, she’d be in constant communication with home and she planned to blog about her experiences.  Her greatest resource was expedia.co.nz, where she kept close watch on discounted prices for Paris hotels, flights, and tickets to attractions and package deals.

 

After a year on the job, Susan had accumulated sufficient vacation time and thanks to the discounts she’d found by booking through expedia.co.nz, she was able to afford her dream trip six months earlier than she’d expected.  She even treated herself to three nights in the five-star Duke Hotel, located only steps from Buckingham palace and one of the most exclusive London hotels available.  After checking in she was thrilled to find it was only blocks from other landmarks like Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square and the London National Gallery.  Perfect, and thanks to Expedia New Zealand, affordable.

 

About The Author:

 

Helen Beck has written a number of travel features about the growing demographic shift of travel among New Zealanders.  At one point, Paris hotels seldom saw visitors from this part of the world, but that has been increasingly changing.  As Helen discovered, younger New Zealanders in particular are part of a growing movement that values artistic and cultural travel destinations, treating travel as a journey of discovery as much as a vacation.  Unlike their parents, people in this demographic are as likely to travel to Europe as they would be to stay at Melbourne hotels when vacationing.