Two wonderful pieces of news in the travel industry this week. Firstly, New Zealand is to open her doors to Australians from mid-April. So, for all of us who have family and friends to catch up with, now is the time to organise your travel plans. For all of you looking for a ski holiday, head to Queenstown and the Southern Alps. I would urge you to secure your arrangements soon, because there will be a flood of bookings, and that generally leads to one thing: price increases!

The second announcement is that cruising is back; the ban has been lifted, and cruise ships will be allowed to re-enter Australian waters from 17th April. Over the last two years, there have been very few Australian-owned expedition vessels allowed to operate: Coral Expeditions and APT. Now the federal government has opened the doors, and the states are all following suit. It takes some time to bring ships back from where they have been marking time and to make them ready for passengers to board, so I anticipate several announcements in the coming days.

P&O cruises plan to commence in May, and Princess in June – these will include ships based in Brisbane, so drive up the road and hop on! Silversea Explorer and Ponant hope to be operating from June along the Kimberley coast. By the time Spring comes around, we should have a full complement of cruise lines in Australia. Here is the list: Norwegian Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Holland America, Celebrity, Viking, Oceania, Cunard, Seabourn and Regent Seven Seas. What a wonderful array of cruise lines to choose from. What the different lines offer and what will suit you is critical to you enjoying your holiday. Travelling Places has lots of knowledge and experience about different cruises, and we access exclusive deals through our affiliation with Helloworld and Virtuoso, so contact us to find out more. 

Several people have been asking for advice about booking travel and airfares, whether to hold off or to arrange trips now. It all comes down to personal preference. You need to feel comfortable about travelling, and the processes that you are now required to go through, although these requirements are changing daily and on the whole are relaxing rather than becoming more arduous. One thing is certain, prices will go up with time. As travellers become more confident with their plans and more people book, so the airlines, cruise lines, hotels, car hire companies and other travel suppliers will increase their pricing. Apart from everything else, they are trying to recover from two years of very difficult trading. The other factor is fuel prices. Last week we quoted a fare to Europe on Wednesday, and on Thursday, the airline increased the price by $200 – a new fuel surcharge!

 Once you secure your price with a deposit or full payment, these increases will not affect you because the increases are not retrospective. 
 
Contact Travelling Places P: 075545 1600 
 E: travel@travellingplaces.com.au