No support for NZ agents

member of the New Zealand Parliament for Remutaka Chris Hipkins has made it clear there will be no more direct support for NZ’s travel advisors, and no plans to involve them in managed isolation & quarantine.

The Travel Agents Association of New Zealand (TAANZ) said the news, circulated in a letter from Hipkins to a colleague, will be a bitter pill for members to swallow, as advisors will now be forced to rely solely on generalised wage subsidy and resurgent payments.

Hipkins also said the dialogue regarding New Zealand’s Consumer Travel Reimbursement Scheme is closed.

“We thought we should be upfront and share this news so that each member can understand the implications to their own business,” TAANZ said.

It added MIQ would be greatly enhanced by having advisors as a conduit for the booking process to align hotels with available airline seats.

“MIQ in its current form is not fit for purpose,” TAANZ said, adding it would be greatly amplified by involving the sector, “given that is a core element of what travel agents do.”

“The government to date has ignored this logic and continues with a system that does not fully utilise the available hotel space in MIQ and causes heartache for those trying to secure a spot.

“This is another situation where the government and the ministries will not accept or even acknowledge the expertise of private enterprise.”

It is a brutal blow for New Zealand’s travel industry, which is still reeling from a decision by the Government of NZ to more than double the country’s Border Processing Levy (TD 30 Sep).

Effective 01 Dec, the current NZD$20.11 fee per airline pax return trip will become NZD$43.73, and levies for cruise pax are being increased to NZD$36.72 - a decision blasted by TAANZ as “kicking an industry while it’s down”.