“TECNZ welcomes the news that pre-departure testing will be removed by 31 July. We would have preferred the date to have been by 31 May 2022 to ensure bookings in the inbound system for June and July could have more security to be realised, but we can work with what we have. It’s not ideal when travellers are making decisions where they can go to safely and easily. We have concern that the continuation of filing a pre-departure test (and travel declaration document) until 1 August, which is stressful for visitors and Kiwis, will affect the ‘ease of travel’ element and some visitors will drop NZ of their list of destinations. It’ll be a wait and see.

Its good news about the having the date bought forward for countries that need a visitor visa pushed to 31 July from October. That’s encouraging and will help visitors from countries like China and India with their travel planning to NZ. The next step is to ensure there is efficient processing of visitor visas from these countries as they make their decisions to travel to NZ over the next six months, so immigration systems don’t become another barrier to travel.”

“We’re also delighted a decision with a date to reopen NZ’s maritime border on 31 July 2022 has finally been made and communicated. It has been excruciatingly painful to have decisions made at such a slow pace. We’re thrilled the New Zealand Cruise Association can move forward and reconnect with cruise lines, ports, regional tourism organisations and support excursion and provision providers and start to plan their
reopening. Pre-COVID, on a numbers basis, cruise passengers were NZ’s third largest visitor market.”

/Ends