‘Light at the end of the tunnel’
Waikato’s tourism sector is celebrating the news of reconnecting with the rest of the world after three long years of struggling to fill the hole in their business.
On Wednesday, the Government announced it will open New Zealand’s border to vaccinated Australian tourists from 11.59pm on April 12.
Then, on May 1, tourists from visa-waiver areas, such as the United States, Britain, Japan, Europe, Taiwan, South Korea, Canada and Singapore will be able to enter New Zealand for the first time in more than 700 days.
Now seeing the ‘‘light at the end of the tunnel’’, the region’s biggest players say they welcome their arrival, but are realistic that it will be some time before they see significant change.
There was a ‘‘real buzz’’ in the air that the industry hadn’t felt for quite some time, Hobbiton deputy chief executive Shayne Forrest told Stuff.
‘‘It’s been a very long two years but now to have a date that we’re reconnecting with the world is very exciting and a huge step in the recovery of the whole industry,’’ Forrest said.
Pre-Covid the hugely popular Tolkien movie set would host about 650,000 people yearly with 90 per cent of the crowd being international tourists.
In 2020, that dropped significantly to about 70,000.
In a bid to survive it was forced to drop staffing numbers from 320 to 26, before slowly rebuilding to 50 this year as New Zealanders began to ‘‘experience their own backyard’’ again.
‘‘We’re hoping to get back to the 100,000-150,000 (visitor) mark now that we’re open again.
‘‘But we are realistic that will take some time.’’
Tourism Holdings chief executive Grant Webster was also ecstatic about the news.
As operator of Discover Waitomo Group among other ventures, he said the border reopening in April and May brought a huge sense of relief to an industry that had been suffering for years.
For the past three years, Waitomo has been one of the hardest hit towns in Waikato.
With 90 per cent of its visitors being international prior to Covid, domestic tourists haven’t filled the hole.
Due to that, he said, it would take some time for the region and New Zealand to rebuild its name internationally, but hopefully the industry would get there.
‘‘New Zealand has fallen behind core trading partners from a tourism perspective. The US has been open, Canada has been open, Australia has been open, and they’ve all been pushing into our markets very strongly.
‘‘We will still lose money this year, but . . . we can now look at the next financial year and look at it really positivity.’’
Meanwhile, along the peninsular it’s a bit more gloomy.
As Thames Coromandel was now entering its quietest season, it would take some time to get the ‘‘travel engine back into motion again’’, Destination Coromandel general manager Hadley Dryden said.
‘‘Thames Coromandel and Hauraki is very much a summer destination,’’ Dryden said. ‘‘We will see some increase, but it won’t be hugely significant.’’
At the very least, he said, a set date would give tourism providers time to plan ahead. ‘‘Now is better than never. ‘‘It will give our industry confidence heading into next summer that the tourists will be there.’’