Tourism wants $200 travel card and long-term plan from the Government

Monday, 19 October 2020

New Zealand had about 20,000 tourism businesses pre-Covid and about 126 key ones received more than $270m in grants and loans to save them from possible closure.

The tourism industry is calling on the Government to come up with a plan to reopen the borders and to issue every New Zealander with a $200 domestic travel card.

There is also support for Prime Minister Jacinda Adern to take over the tourism portfolio so tourism can leverage off her international reputation once overseas visitors are allowed to return.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa’s 100-day plan for the Government includes giving every Kiwi a $200 travel card to stimulate domestic tourism outside weekends and school holidays.

TIA communications manager Ann-Marie Johnson said the card could be linked to special deals from participating tourism and hospitality businesses, and used on weekdays only from the beginning of March.

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Domestic travel spending has been patchy and Tourism Industry Aotearoa says giving every Kiwi a $200 travel card would spread it through the week.

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Tourism Export Council chief executive Lynda Keene says there is growing support to have Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern take over the tourism portfolio, previously held by John Key when he was Prime Minister,

“New Zealanders prefer to travel at weekends and during school holidays, leaving lower demand on weekdays. This makes it difficult for tourism operators to provide fulltime employment so a travel card would support jobs around the country.”

TIA also wants a tourism innovation fund (similar to the $100m accelerator fund the National Party’ promised in its tourism policy), and access to new bridging finance for tourism businesses lacking overseas visitors, and unable to fill that void with Kiwi customers.

But top priority for the industry was a long term plan for reopening borders when it was safe to do so.

“We should initiate discussions with multiple countries and reach agreement on the conditions for opening the borders,” Johnson said.

Tourism Export Council (TEC) chief executive Lynda Keene agreed.

She said the Government’s Tourism Futures Taskforce would look at how to develop the industry through until 2050, but a more immediate plan on how to handle a return of international visitors was badly needed.

TEC hopes to deliver a plan to the Government in the next three weeks, and it is consulting widely with industry groups such as the car rental, cruise, coach tour, conference, international education, and aviation sectors.

“We will be looking at ideas to ensure a safe and well managed programme is in place,” Keene said, with an international contact tracing app such as goPassport used to track Covid-19 test results for arriving visitors.

In recent months there has been talk in industry circles about the Prime Minister taking on the tourism portfolio.

“It would send a very strong message to global markets that New Zealand is serious about its health outcomes and when the time is right, it is safe for visitors to return,” said Keene.

Asked if the industry would support incumbent Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis as associate tourism minister, Keene said there were “any number of Cabinet ministers who would do the role very well.”

The Government’s $400m tourism rescue package has copped considerable criticism for the way 130 tourism businesses were chosen to receive cash grants of up to $500,000.

But before the election Davis told Stuff he hoped to retain all his portfolios and has repeatedly said he would not revisit distribution of grants for the strategic asset protection programme.