AA Traveller is putting domestic travel on sale for the next few months – and there’s a very good reason.

Tourism has been booming over the last year with international arrivals up more than 300,000 in the 12 months to the end of January.

Even with an increase in overseas visitors, which pushed many places to capacity, New Zealand tourism businesses are preparing for the shoulder season which will see a decline from nearly 445,000 international arrivals in the month of December last year and a further 343,000 in January, to less than 200,000 a month during the cooler months.

The seasonal variation of our tourism industry is hardly surprising and businesses need to budget for it, but it does create an opportunity.

AA Travel and Tourism General Manager Grant Lilly says domestic tourism, rather than inbound visitors, remains the lifeblood of the industry.

“The volume of overseas visitors will gradually decline over the coming weeks, but the variety of what New Zealand has to offer definitely remains,” Mr Lilly says.

“There’s never been a better time to get out and explore our country, especially when there are some great offerings available and fewer people around, making the experience more enjoyable.”

Supporting that idea, about 1.8 million personal AA Members and AA Smartfuel cardholders are being offered new benefits enabling them to sample some of New Zealand’s best spots from 1 April through to the end of the school holidays on 9 October, as part of AA Traveller’s Great Spot Specials campaign.

Mr Lilly says the campaign is unique because it has the support of some of New Zealand’s leading tourism businesses, each recognising the opportunity that domestic travel provides.

“Great Spot Specials ticks a lot of boxes in bringing together some of the key tourism businesses in New Zealand, providing substantial deals for Kiwis all pulled together on our platform that enables travellers to buy local.

“Few of us can truly say we’ve explored our own country. What the Great Spots Specials campaign enables is a reason to get out there and check out some of the parts of New Zealand we’ve never seen.”

Great Spot Specials provides inspiration and options to Kiwi travellers all in one place. By visiting aa.co.nz/greatspot, people can select a place to visit or activity to do, work out their travel arrangements and book accommodation.

Over the next six months a wide range of benefits will be offered to AA Members and AA Smartfuel cardholders so those keen to hit the road can pick and choose what they’d like to do, on their own terms and on their own timeline.

“It’s an opportunity to do some of things that our international visitors rave about when they go home, but so many of us don’t experience for ourselves. Many of us have never experienced a jetboat ride on the Shotover River or explored Waitomo Caves, for example. Great Spot Specials makes it easy and affordable to do that.”

AA Traveller’s partners for the Great Spot Specials include Air New Zealand, Tourism Holdings with its Britz campervans, Thrifty rental cars, Fullers Bay of Islands and the Interislander.

Leisure activity providers Real Journeys, Skyline and Ngai Tahu Tourism are part of the mix along with Heritage Hotels along with more than 1500 accommodation properties always available on the AA Traveller website throughout the country.