Worsening OZ Covid outbreak impacts NZ tourism operatorsheavily

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Tourism operators dealing with a wave of cancellations resulting from the trans-Tasman bubble bursting should be given wage subsidy assistance, Queenstown Lakes District’s mayor says.

Since the trans-Tasman bubble opened in April tourism operators, especially those in New Zealand’s alpine regions, have been looking forward to welcoming a flood of Australian tourists taking advantage of their school holidays in late June coinciding with the start of the ski season.

But on Saturday night their hopes were dashed when, amidst a worsening Covid-19 outbreak in Australia, the New Zealand Government announced all quarantine-free travel from Australia had been paused until midnight Tuesday.

NZSki chief executive Paul Anderson said, during the Australian and New Zealand school holidays it was expecting to have between 4000 and 6000 visitors a day to its Queenstown ski areas, but it was now looking to have about half that number.

NZSki operates The Remarkables, Coronet Peak and Mt Hutt ski fields.

When quarantine-free travel from New South Wales to New Zealand was paused last week, it received a high level of cancellations.

“We are seeing the same thing this week. We are gutted, but we understand what needs to happen,” he said.
Before the pause, bookings had been strong for the coming week, and it was almost booked out for snow sports lessons, he said.

The more pauses there were throughout the season, the harder it would be on the business without any government assistance, he said.

Queenstown Lakes District mayor Jim Boult said the absence of Australian visitors would impact operators across the entire region, not just accommodation providers and ski fields.

A hotelier text messaged Boult on Monday morning, saying that before the pause, it had been fully booked for Thursday.

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