TROUBLE IN PARADISE
The global pandemic has brought NZ’s tourism industry to its knees. Now the Government is warning flight traffic won’t return to pre-Covid-19 levels for at least another three years, as resort towns battle for survival.
Dark clouds lingered low over the Kaiko¯ura ranges on the day the Tourism Minister came to town. The Esplanade — the main drag — was gloomy on an eerie still day, where the squawk of seagulls hung sharply in the air.
Empty carparks, boarded-up cafes and shops.
For those tourism operators still open, business is stiflingly slow. International visitors, which made up to 80-90 per cent of trade for some, are gone.
The normally bustling spot is a ghostly version of itself, reminiscent of the shaky aftermath of the magnitude-7.8 tremor that ripped through Kaiko¯ura on November 14, 2016, tearing down mountainsides, ripping up roads, and uplifting the seabed.
It took the town, where 40 per cent of jobs are tourism-related, years to recover from the natural disaster. For some, it was ongoing. And then last year, disaster struck again. The global Covid-19 pandemic arrived on New Zealand shores and the shutters went up.
Before Covid-19, tourism was New Zealand’s largest export industry, worth about $40 billion a year and directly employing 8.4 per cent (229,566 people) of the national workforce.
Without international visitors, New Zealand is facing a revenue gap of $12.9b a year.
Over the past 12 months, Kaiko¯ ura tour operators have tried to tweak their businesses to target the only available market — Kiwis. And they have helped.
Nga¯i Tahu owned and operated Whale Watch Kaiko¯ura, one of four Kaiko¯ura businesses boosted by the Government’s Strategic Tourism Assets Protection Programme funding, getting up to $1.5 million, has increased its domestic numbers by 100 per cent.
Along the Esplanade, down from the shops and alongside the quietly lapping shore and walkway arches of whale jawbones, are parked rows of white campervans. The grey nomads are helping tick the town over.
Cambridge retirees Ray and Judi Kelly sit in their campervan, emblazoned with “Hasta la Vista”, enjoying the view.
They have spent six weeks touring the South Island visiting family and friends. So far, they’ve been everywhere: Blenheim, Nelson, Greymouth, Christchurch, Lake Tekapo¯, Dunedin, Gore, Invercargill, the Catlins.
Ray Kelly, 76, reckons “half the North Island must be down here”.
They’re aware how much tourist towns like Kaiko¯ura have suffered over the past year.
“That’s the reason we’re here,” says Judi. “We thought we’d stop off for a bit and say we really appreciate what they have done.”
Towns like Kaiko¯ ura are happy to have them. They will take any visitors they can get.
Lynette Buurman of dolphin watching tour operator Encounter
Kaiko¯ ura, says events of the past year have been “catastrophic”.
The business, which had a 90 per cent reliance on overseas visitors for its tours, had nearly recovered from the quakes when the border closed. Hasty decisions were made, cutting staff, ending seasonal contracts early, operations scaled right back.
“It’s been so confronting again. But in a different way [to the quakes], in a much bigger way because it wasn’t just Kaiko¯ura this time.”
Murray Hamilton, operations manager at whale-watching business Air Kaiko¯ura, says they’ve taken an 85 per cent hit after losing international travellers.
They have adapted and introduced flights to Wellington through winter months and focused on flight instructing. The only help they have received from the Government is the wage subsidy.
And if they’re going to survive the looming winter, Hamilton says they’re going to need more support.
“If we don’t get some more support, this winter will be extremely difficult for us to survive and that’s the truth of it. There’s only a certain amount of people who want to go whale
watching in New Zealand.”
Tourism Minister Stuart Nash, who visited local operators this week, knows Kaiko¯ ura has been hard-hit by the pandemic — a place so reliant on international visitors.
“They’ve done it tough, there’s no doubt about that,” he admits.
He believes the Government is doing enough to help tourism business cope, pointing to various funding schemes available.
Nash has repeatedly said there is an emphasis on attracting high-end, big spenders when the border reopens.
Advice he’s received from airlines is that it will take “three to four years at least” before pre-Covid levels of air traffic returns to New Zealand.
And it will be expensive to get here. That’s why the top end of travellers is being targeted.
“These are the people who will get up our tourism spend and drive value growth in our tourism industry,” Nash says.
But Buurman, who is also chairwoman of regional tourism group Destination Kaiko¯ura, says they rely on a broad range of customers.
The backpacker or budget traveller, she says, is “very much part of our customer mix”.
They’re all hanging out for a safe travel bubble with Australia.
Nash stressed to operators this week that Government is very keen to make it happen. Buurman and Hamilton, like others spoken to by the Herald on Sunday, feel the time has come for a cautious border easing to happen.
The Government needs to be “bold, courageous and confident” in making the call, Buurman says.
“I feel a hesitancy but at some point we need to test the waters and respond accordingly,” she says.
“That’s the only way we’re going to build back out of this terrible crisis.”
She’s been impressed with the Government’s handling of Covid-19 to date, but says the crisis is beginning to bite tourism business hard.
Buurman called on Nash, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, to provide more clarity on how they can recover.
For Nash, visits to struggling places like Kaiko¯ura are helpful in making the big decisions.
“There’s some hard conversations to be had in Te Anau, Queenstown and [Kaiko¯ura],” he says.
“There really are people who have done it tough and I really acknowledge that. And hearing their stories first-hand is very important and when I got back and talk to my Cabinet colleagues.”