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The Travel Agents’ Association of New Zealand (TAANZ) has outlined its election 2026 priorities, calling on the incoming government to commit to three practical changes to help Kiwis book and navigate travel with greater confidence.
TAANZ represents 90% of New Zealand’s travel agents and advisors, an industry generating more than NZ$5 billion in annual revenue and supporting more than 5,000 jobs nationwide.
“Travel is a big purchase for most people, and there are a few simple things that could make the experience a lot easier for travellers,” says TAANZ chief executive Julie White.
“Knowing you’re booking with someone you can trust, understanding what you’re entitled to when a flight goes wrong, and being clear about what you’re paying for are all areas where a little more clarity would go a long way.”
TAANZ’s first priority is making it easier for consumers to know who they can trust when booking travel. New Zealanders lost close to $3 billion to scams last year, equivalent to almost 0.75% of GDP, with shopping scams, which include travel bookings, now accounting for around half of all reported cases.
TAANZ says AI-generated booking websites, fake reviews and increasingly convincing voice and video scams are making it harder for consumers to spot a legitimate business.
It wants government to promote TAANZ-Accreditation as a clear sign that a travel advisor is legitimate and accountable, including through public awareness campaigns, a preference for accredited advisors in government procurement, and referrals from organisations such as Netsafe and CERT NZ.
“People are being asked to make decisions online all the time about who they can trust, and scams are getting much harder to spot,” says Julie.
“An accredited travel advisor gives people something real to look for. They are bonded, accountable and operating within a set of standards, so people can have confidence they’re dealing with a legitimate business.”
TAANZ is also calling for a New Zealand Aviation Consumer Charter, modelled on Australia’s Aviation Customer Rights Charter, so passengers are clearly told what their rights are when a flight is delayed, cancelled, or disrupted.
Currently, passenger rights sit across the Civil Aviation Act 2023, the Consumer Guarantees Act and the Montreal Convention. TAANZ says this can leave travel advisors trying to work out what applies, often while a traveller is already dealing with a stressful situation.
“We’re not asking for a whole new set of compensation rules. We just want people to know where they stand,” says Julie.
“If an airline has cancelled your flight or something has gone wrong, the airline should be explaining your rights clearly. It shouldn’t be left to the travel advisor to try and work it out for the customer.”
TAANZ’s third priority is protecting travel businesses’ ability to recover the cost of card payments, as the Retail Payment System (Ban on Merchant Surcharges) Amendment Bill returns to Parliament.
TAANZ is calling for a permanent exemption for the travel sector covering both in-store and online bookings, stating that travel is different from most retail purchases, with holidays often booked years before departure while the travel business carries the cost of processing the payment, currency movements and chargeback risk from the day the booking is made.
“A blanket ban doesn’t really reflect the way people buy travel,” says Julie.
“You can have a customer booking a $10,000 holiday two or three years before they travel. The agency is carrying the cost and risk of that transaction for a very long time.
“We don’t want to see smaller, independent travel businesses squeezed out, or those costs simply disappearing into the price of travel. There is a sensible middle ground that protects consumers while recognising how travel actually works.”
White says the priorities are about making some straightforward changes that would give travellers greater confidence when they book and travel.
“Most of us don’t think too much about what sits behind a travel booking until something goes wrong. These are fairly practical changes that would make things a little clearer for travellers and for the businesses helping them.”
