Spark has announced a simplified new approach to roaming, with seven-day packs designed to make travel easier while offering greater cost certainty.

The new Spark roaming packs offer seven days of roaming across 33 destinations for just $20.

Jason Paris, Spark CEO of Home says, “We know staying connected while overseas on holiday or business is massively important to New Zealanders.

“We've spoken at length to our customers, listened to what they said, and designed new roaming plans to meet their real travel needs.

“As a result, we're confident this is our best offer yet for the way New Zealanders really do travel.

Spark has seen roaming data use jump by nearly 60% over the past year across its most popular travel destinations.

Over the same time, the number of New Zealand residents travelling abroad has risen by 11.5% according to Statistics New Zealand.

This highlights the significant growth in demand for roaming services, a trend Spark expects to accelerate in coming years as the global travel boom continues.

Paris saying, “Most Kiwis don't just travel for a day but for an average of five days at a time, so weekly packs are a much better fit for their roaming needs than other options.

“We also know nearly a third of customers travel to more than one destination each trip, so roaming that works across the countries they travel to makes life much easier.

“No more zones, just a single price for heaps of data, texts and minutes around the world.

The new $20 roaming pack delivers 500 MB of data, 200 incoming and 200 outgoing minutes, and 200 texts for seven days

28% of Spark customers who roam are travelling to Australia, then carrying on to another destination.

Paris continues, “New Zealanders are more and more travel-hungry and people are now reliant on their mobile phones when travelling.

“We use our smartphones for dozens of things, like finding our way around a new city, searching for restaurants, keeping appointments and checking in with friends and colleagues.

“Customers need to know they can roam without worrying about a huge bill.”

The minutes and texts in Spark's new roaming packs can be used to call or text any country, not just those countries where the roaming packs are available.

The new roaming packs cover 83% of the places Kiwis tend to travel to, and 92% of the places New Zealanders travel to on business, according to Statistics New Zealand.