AFTA UPDATE

From Dean Long, CEO

ThIs week I will be meeting with the NZ Tourism Minister, Stuart Nash, and CEO of Tourism NZ, Rene de Monchy as part of their trade mission to Australia that coincides with ATE.

While travel is now permitted between Australia and New Zealand, there are still some friction points such as pretesting that needs to be urgently removed.

We know Australians are rediscovering their love of travel far quicker than forecast, but destinations with restrictionfree travel such as Singapore and the UK have seen a quicker recovery and no additional burden on their health systems.

As I have spoken about before, for many in the sector, a successful recovery will be dependent on a successful 2022 Australian and NZ ski season.

With domestic border closures long gone, any country that maintains even minimal barriers to travel will most likely see a slower recovery.

AFTA and the newly appointed CEO of TAANZ Greg Hamilton recently discussed how both organisations can work together to support the recovery of our sector.

The strong relationship both organisations have will serve our members well as we jointly advocate for the removal of the NZ restrictions.

Finally, last week the AFTA Board met in Sydney for a workshop on the new constitution.

The aim of this project is to ensure the constitution will deliver on the current and future requirements of the Association and provide clear objectives for operating.

There has been over three months of consultation with Board members and industry leaders and a draft discussion paper will be shared with members and the greater sector in the coming month.

This is a once-in-a-generation project, taking all of the lessons learnt from the establishment of ATAS, the pandemic and ongoing evolution of the sector.