Kiwis made the most of their Eurail Passes last year to take an average of 14 different train journeys per Eurail trip, travelling an average of 1,363km by rail, and spending an average of 8.3 hours onboard European trains. Compared to travellers across the Tasman, New Zealanders took more train journeys and spent longer onboard than Australians.
Releasing the company’s 2024 data and insights, Jody Bauer, senior research analyst at Eurail, says New Zealanders are hugely important travellers for Eurail.
‘Despite cost-of-living concerns at home, New Zealand youth travellers (those aged 12-27) dominated, representing 44% of all New Zealand passholders last year jumping from 34% pre-Covid,’ Bauer says.
‘This was followed by New Zealand adult travellers (those aged 28-59) at 34%, New Zealand seniors (60+) at 19%, and New Zealand children (4-11) at 3%.’
Eurail has noted a shift towards more affordable second class travel. Pre-covid (2019) New Zealanders were pretty evenly split, with 48% travelling by first class and 52% travelling by second class. Last year the majority of Kiwis (68%) travelled in a second class cabin.
Bauer says New Zealanders remain important for Eurail, and European tourism in general, because of their longer length of stay and their curiosity to explore different parts of the continent. ‘The most popular Eurail Pass category for New Zealand travellers in 2024 was the ‘10 days in two months’ Pass, which gives the option to choose ten different rail travel days within a selected two-month period.’