Australia Reopens For Visitors 21 February 2022

New Zealand international tourism businesses’ hope of a future lasts four days after the Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison announced yesterday that the country is ready to welcome back international visitors on 21 February, 704 days since their closed to visitors.

Chief Executive of the Tourism Export Council of New Zealand (TECNZ) said, “We’re thrilled for our Australian counterparts. Tourism businesses in Australia are rejoicing they have a date and can now plan to gear-up their operations and put the welcome mat out.”

The immediate reaction from tourism businesses in New Zealand is a bit of dismay. We hadn’t expected Australia to set a date as early as the 21 February so it’s taken us by surprise. Operators have slumped their shoulders because they know there is a very high chance New Zealand will lose market share to Australia. It’s another barrier to our international recovery. This is because long-haul destinations like Australia and New Zealand receive up to 40% of visitors that are dual destination visitors. Particularly visitors from North American countries, UK and European countries who only come to this part of the world every 5-10 years.

New Zealand does not have a clear date as yet, just at a time in July (or earlier). The ongoing uncertainty for airlines and offshore travel partners to sell New Zealand may pre-empt a switch to increase frequency of flights and sales to Australia only over the next few months. This would be devastating as New Zealand tries to start its own international tourism recovery in July 2022. The difference of five months to welcome back visitors could affect our tourism recovery for years as Australia throws everything at markets to welcome visitors back. As countries we’re friends but competition is real.

When you add the fact that New Zealand currently has a major handbrake with the 10-day self-isolation requirement and Australia does not, as a prospective visitor ‘Downunder’, the country that has no barriers to entry is the country that is going to get booked. New Zealand is at great risk of losing the millions of dollars Inbound Tour Operators (ITOs) have booked in the pipeline for 2022 and 2023. This would be disastrous and could potentially send many businesses to the wall. Competition is going to be fierce for visitors, and at the moment, New Zealand isn’t even off the batting mound.

We are extremely concerned New Zealand is going to be left behind and our global reputation will take another hit. The self-isolation requirement has baffled all of our offshore travel sellers. The demand is there for visitors to return but if we don’t take action soon, travel sellers will just focus on Australia. We urge the government to provide a set date for the return of international visitors with no self-isolation requirement. It’s important we give the industry every chance of success to rebuild its world-class tourism offering and the key factor in this is to remove the self-isolation requirement and allow New Zealand to be competitive with Australia.

We’re mindful NZ is yet to go through its Omicron wave. It may be too much to hope for that due to our 94% vaccination rate and booster and child vaccinations tracking well that we might escape the wave. But, perhaps we can. If this should happen, from a timing perspective, a date to consider could be 1 April 2022 for the reopening of the border, or the 19 March 2022. That’s exactly two years, 730 days since the border closed. A date around this time would allow New Zealand to be in a competitive space with Australia and provide the impetus for tourism businesses to have hope of surviving when the first visitors start to return.

Another worrying unintended consequence of Australia opening so early for international visitors is that there’s a high risk that a younger person who was keen to come to New Zealand on a working holiday visa might now switch their plans to Australia. This will exacerbate the labour shortage the tourism industry is already facing. If this happens, it will be another added stress for business owners trying to get to first base.

There’s also a high risk young Kiwis who have been displaced from working in the industry in NZ might head over to Australia for working (or permanent) holidays. Retaining IP and experience in the industry is critical so we can hit the road running when our reopening date is announced. All of these things add up that might hinder our tourism recovery and we should mitigate these risks urgently with getting a set date for reopening with no self-isolation requirement.

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