Direct aid preferred ahead of vouchers

An international airline lobby group, which includes Air New Zealand as a member, is calling on governments to give their citizens vouchers to spend on travel as a way to boost domestic tourism.

The International Air Transport Association (Iata) has identified five ways that governments can help stimulate air travel, a sector facing projected global losses of US$39 billion (NZ$55b) in 2021.

The initiatives include waiving government charges, taxes and fees to airlines and passengers, route subsidies for domestic flights, financial incentives to airlines for operating flights, advance ticket purchases by governments that can be used for official travel or distributed to the public, and passenger travel subsidies in the form of vouchers for passengers or as a percentage cash-back on overall travel costs.

The New Zealand Government, which is a 52 per cent shareholder in Air New Zealand, has granted airlines subsidies to operate international cargo flights from New Zealand and provided financial assistance to domestic operators.

There have also been calls from these shores for a travel voucher scheme to be launched.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa suggested to the Government that it should give every New Zealander a $200 travel card to be used outside weekends and school holidays, and Otago University MBA student Anthony Gardiner suggested the Government could load a $100 e-voucher onto every New Zealander’s Covid-19 contact tracer app.

Similar domestic travel voucher schemes have been used in Italy, Japan, Iceland, Tasmania, Thailand and the UK.

However, a spokeswoman for Tourism Minister Stuart Nash said the Government had not considered giving taxpayer subsidies in the form of vouchers or cashback schemes to holidaymakers.

‘‘Support for the tourism and hospitality sector is being delivered in more direct ways to assist businesses and workers.’’

Support to tourism businesses included a $400 million Tourism Recovery Package. Tourism businesses had drawn down nearly $300m in interest-free loans under the Small Business Cash Flow Loan scheme, and tourism and hospitality businesses accounted for about 18 per cent of all small businesses who had accessed it, Nash said.

It was now looking for new ways to encourage domestic tourism through a $112m annual budget for Crown entity Tourism NZ.