International tourism sector still nervous
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The Tourism Export Council of New Zealand (TECNZ) is thrilled that returning New Zealanders from Australia can return home from 2nd March and Kiwis from the rest of world from 4th March 2022 without any self-isolation requirement.

There has been a concerted and united effort from many export sectors over the past four weeks including the international aviation and tourism, hospitality and events sectors, to present a logical rationale as to how the health risk profile for those coming across the border is far less than that was/is currently in New Zealand communities.

“The decision yesterday makes sense,” says Lynda Keene Chief Executive of Tourism Export Council NZ. “It is an encouraging start. The government has listened and shown its intent to look at reconnecting to the world. It’s a positive start and helpful for airlines already servicing NZ on their global networks and for other airlines to put NZ back on their schedules in 2022.”

“For Inbound Tour Operators’ offshore travel partners (tour wholesalers and travel agents) there’s still a level of nervousness. Will the intentions of the NZ government be realised? There’s not quite enough certainty yet for ITOs to secure the bookings in the system to protect the international 2022-2023 visitor season. Timing is going to be critical. Any notification later than April could put our international recovery at risk. ITOs and offshore travel partners work 12-24 months in advance.”

“Our normal booking window is from March-May each year for the upcoming Oct-Apr visitor season. It is vital we protect bookings currently in the system. If we wait too long to announce visitors can come to NZ without self-isolation, we may lose a significant opportunity to launch the tourism recovery. Offshore partners may shrug their shoulders and think, ‘Oh, that’s a shame, NZ is still closed, Australia is open. Okay, we’ll sell Australia because we have confidence they are ready.”

We’re (NZ) friends with Australia but we’re also competitors and that shouldn’t be underestimated when the global traveller tends to only come ‘Downunder’ (to Oceania) once every 5-10 years.

We appreciate the government’s caution to not state dates for visitors to return without self-isolation as we progress through the Omicron cycle. We hope the government will keep its focus on its future decisions that are going to enable NZ’s international tourism recovery, not constrain it. Demand is high at the moment. But, if we can’t give a more confident message what the intention is (for example, open for Easter holidays or 1 May 2022 for visitors to return, not 1 July), we’re still at risk our current and future bookings could go elsewhere in the world.

This would have a devastating impact on international tourism businesses still hanging on by a thread. Even the most positive and resilient in the industry are struggling.

”We can’t understate the future of international tourism is still in a precarious position, as noted in TECNZ’s recent February survey. Many businesses will not last till July 2022 without financial support. There would be more confidence (and a lot less mental stress and anxiety) within the industry if the government was to approve a targeted international tourism Resilience package to help businesses get to the starting gate, whatever that date might be. TECNZ has put forward a business case for Cabinet to consider.

As stated earlier, we’re moving in the right direction to reconnect NZ to the world.

We do question however, what is the difference with a health risk profile between an international visitor from California and a returning Kiwi from the California from 6 March 2022? None that we can see if all travellers are fully vaccinated as a base requirement to travel. We hope government looks at this over the next few weeks.

New Zealand needs to reclaim the outward thinking, confident, adventurous spirit that for many has been squashed over the past two years. That’s who we are. We’re adventurers and explorers. It is an unintended consequence through the pandemic that NZ (and many of our young people who would have embarked on their OE) has lost its ‘verve’, vigour, liveliness or spirit and enthusiasm to embark on a global adventure.

Should the government consider moving forward the start date for international visitors to be welcomed back to NZ from July 2022? Yes, as quickly as possible.

Why? To ensure our international quality tourism offering is able to compete on the world stage. The industry is ready. We have all the appropriate health and safety and visitor/customer wellbeing protocols in place. NZ cannot miss the 2022-2023 season with ‘advance’ bookings. If we do miss the window, NZ’s international tourism offering will dissolve because businesses simply cannot hold on any longer after two years of zero revenue or limited opportunity to generate revenue. We’re not out of the woods yet.

If we can get a date from government by 31 March 2022 that international visitors can book their holiday to New Zealand without any self-isolation requirement, the international tourism sector can start its recovery journey to rebuild our world-class international visitor offering. It won’t happen overnight, it will take time. However, the sooner we can give our offshore travel partners a ‘sell date’ for New Zealand, we can face the future (finally) with a small degree of confidence.

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Media contact:
Chief Executive, Lynda Keene, phone: 027 66 44 836