Widespread closures feared
Hundreds of tourism operators claim they will close this year if business does not improve.
Just over half the 923 operators who responded to a Tourism New Zealand survey last month said their survival depended on an upturn in business.
The results highlight how much tourism is reliant on a trans-Tasman bubble, with 13 per cent of respondents saying they could only last another three months, and a similar number are able to keep going for three to six months.
Many businesses have already scaled down, and those who are yet to do so expect to reduce their workforce by 43 per cent. The vast majority are small businesses with fewer than 20 full-time staff, while 40 per cent are accommodation providers and almost a third run visitor activities.
The Tourism NZ survey was done before April 6 was named as the day on which the Government would announce the date for quarantine-free travel to be opened between Australia and New Zealand.
Tourism NZ interim chief executive Rene de Monchy said industry confidence had fallen since the last survey in October, and the outlook for the six months to August was poor, largely driven by the accommodation sector and the impact of Covid-19 on Auckland, Queenstown and Christchurch.
‘‘While short-term confidence has fallen since the last survey, outlook for the next year is slightly more optimistic. I would expect that there will be even more optimism as we get closer to quarantine-free travel from Australia.’’
Although domestic spending over summer hit $885 million (up 20 per cent), results were patchy. A fifth of operators reported higher returns than the previous summer, but half said it was worse than expected.
One of the main concerns for tourism business owners was lower customer numbers, showing that while New Zealanders had increased their spending on activities and visiting new places, the gap left by the lack of international visitors continued to grow, de Monchy said.
About 40 per cent of businesses said employee numbers would remain stable, which reflected that many had already made cutbacks, or they were sole traders or small operators who could not reduce staffing any further.