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International tourists to return! Border reopening dates brought forward

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The Restaurant Association welcomes the announcement that the Government is bringing forward the date for opening the border to tourists. We know that for many RA members the return of international tourists is a vitally important step towards our recovery.

Key information:

  • From 11.59pm, Tuesday 12 April – Australians will be able to travel to New Zealand isolation-free.
  • From 11.59pm, Sunday 1 May, vaccinated travelers from visa-waiver countries (including UK, US, Japan, Germany, Korea and Singapore), and those with valid visitor visas, will be able to arrive.
  • The Australian step will be in time for the Australian school holidays.
  • Tourists will not need to isolate on arrival, they will be required to have had a pre-departure test, with two further rapid antigen tests on day 0/1 and 5/6.

Additional detail:

Closing our border was one of the first actions New Zealand took to stop COVID-19 two years ago. However, now that the country is highly vaccinated and predicted to be off our Omicron peak, the Government considers it’s now safe to open up.

Trans-Tasman travellers have historically made up 40 per cent of our international arrivals, with around 1.5 million Australians visiting each year. In addition, around 60 countries are visa waiver countries – the return of travelers from non visa waiver countries is yet to be announced (currently this is October).

Prior to COVID-19, tourism contributed 5.5 per cent to GDP, bringing in about $41 billion altogether, international making up $17 billion of that. It was also responsible for 8 per cent of our national workforce. While there may not be an immediate influx of travelers, it will enable travelers from other countries to start making plans to return to New Zealand with this certainty of reopening dates now available.

As our tourists return it will be essential that we have the numbers of employees needed to operate our businesses. The Association is concerned that although current temporary work and student visa holders, (with an existing valid visa who can still meet their visa requirements) can return from 12 April, new visa applications are still set to open from July onwards. This coincides with the Accredited Employer system being introduced.

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