Govt pondering extra holidays for tourism

The Government is giving ‘‘active consideration’’ to additional holidays to allow Kiwis to visit tourism operations in New Zealand.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that was one idea being considered to provide an economic boost to the country’s embattled tourism sector. She made the comment during a visit to Rotorua’s Te Puia yesterday.

Asked whether, in the wake of Easter and Anzac Day falling within the earlier lockdown periods, additional holiday time was being considered, Ardern said the Government was thinking of ideas ‘‘to encourage New Zealanders to come and see their own backyards’’.

‘‘Those are things we’re giving active consideration to.’’

Her remarks were welcomed by Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief Chris Roberts.

‘‘There’s agreement we need to support domestic tourism, it’s all we have for the time being and we need to be as imaginative as possible, more than a glitzy marketing campaign,’’ he said.

Roberts said domestic tourism had two main drivers; big events and time off.

‘‘And for now we can’t have events. We’ve plenty of evidence that long weekends lead to significant boosts in spending.’’

He said a long gap existed between Queen’s Birthday Weekend and Labour Day, and that some type of additional long weekend could be offered as a ‘‘reward’’ to the nation for the successes in combating the Covid-19 pandemic.

He acknowledged, however, that additional time off work could attract pushback from other sectors also trying to recover from the lockdown.