The travel industry is holding up well, despite ongoing conflict in the Middle East and rising fuel prices, according to the Travel Agents Association of New Zealand CEO, Julie White.Speaking to Morning Report, White said June transactions were up 12 percent compared to 2025."Kiwis are really resilient, and what has come through loud and clear is that Kiwis love to travel."It's no longer a discretional part of their expenditure, it's now become part of their annual budget."With some disruption through the popular travel corridor of the Middle East, there had been a rise in the number of people travelling via places like Singapore rather than through Dubai, to get to Europe."Singapore has been really popular and we've seen additional capacity on those routes from Singapore Airlines as well as Air New Zealand. But having said that, we're still seeing strong demand for Middle East carriers like Qatar and Emirates."The financial business district in Singapore. (File photo)AFPFlight disruption was just a part of the airline business, White said."Any given day in any given year, there are shutdowns in airspace in some type of form. The global airlines, they know what to do."Unfortunately, they don't need to dust off their business continuity plans. They're literally on their desk. So they are able to pivot and find new sectors really quickly," White said.However, there had been a drop in the number of Kiwis travelling to the United States, with two key factors taking a shine off the destination."I think we can all speculate. From a New Zealand to US dollar point of view, your money just doesn't buy you as much over in the US. And also the geopolitical conditions," White said.Figures from Stats New Zealand show 10,696 people travelled to the United States in May this year, compared to 13,769 in 2025.North America's loss, may be Japan's gain, with the number of New Zealanders travelling to the country up 15 percent on last year."Northern hemisphere summer is still in strong demand. A lot of Kiwis are enjoying going and getting those warmer temperatures during our winter."White said, while it's not possible to calculate exactly how much the increase in jet fuel is costing airlines and travellers, she believes the figure is around six percent domestically."Generally speaking, fuel costs are around 40 percent of an airline's cost. So it's quite significant when it increases," she said.Official data shows 6429 travelled to the United Kingdom from New Zealand in May, down from 8053 in May 2025.White said there was a strong demand for inbound travel for New Zealand's summer, with strong bookings for outbound travellers into 2027.