Attracting another 200,000 New Zealanders

NEW Zealand is Australia’s number one source market for international visitors, with 1.2 million New Zealanders visiting Australia last year. And while that is an impressive figure, arrivals from New Zealand have been relatively flat for a number of years, rising less than 10% since 2005, and holiday arrivals have in fact declined. We believe there’s significant room for improvement. To kick-start that growth, TTF has released Bringing Our Neighbour Closer, a new report which proposes reforms that could boost the number of visits from New Zealand by around 200,000 a year, with increased expenditure in Australia of $370 million. A similar number of additional visits by Asian tourists could be achieved through offering a common, affordable visa across both countries. The report looks at four key factors restricting growth. The first is travel times, which are too long thanks to international check-in and biosecurity requirements. With 92% of arrivals from New Zealand coming through Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Gold Coast Airports, improving passenger facilitation at these airports should be the priority. We also believe we can induce demand by cutting total travel times to under five hours, which studies shows is the psychological barrier to short-break travel. The second factor is cost – and reducing the tax burden is central to this reform. Air travel between our two countries is heavily taxed – albeit only in one direction. The Australian departure tax, the Passenger Movement Charge, can account for more than one-fifth of the total price for a return ticket. In Australia’s most price-sensitive inbound tourism market, this unnecessary tax has real impact and should be reduced or removed. Bringing Our Neighbour Closer recommends cutting the PMC from $55 to $25 for trans-tasman flights, reducing the burden on a family of four from New Zealand by more than NZ$130. The third reform is to open up new destinations along our east coast to direct trans-tasman flights, especially during winter, expanding our product offering, particularly to the short-break segment. This would address the issue of destination fatigue and also drive dispersal by reducing total travel time to regional destinations. We would like to see a streamlined model of passenger processing to allow direct flights from New Zealand to airports in Newcastle, Canberra, Hobart, the Whitsundays and Avalon, as well as regional destinations in New South Wales and Queensland. The final recommendation is to encourage greater visitation to both Australia and New Zealand by Asian tourists through a reduced-cost, common visa. With the centenary of the Gallipoli landing on April 25 next year, these reforms would be an appropriate acknowledgement of the close relationship between our two countries.