Welcome back! New Zealand is reopening to international travellers for the first time in two years. Photo / Getty Images
Welcome back! New Zealand is reopening to international travellers for the first time in two years. Photo / Getty Images
New Zealand is finally ready to reconnect to the world.
From 12 April 11.59pm, visitors from Australia will be able to enter the New Zealand, quarantine free and without needing an exemption.
From 1 May at 11.59pm visitors from visa waver countries and those holding valid visitor visas will be able to return.
This would be the first time some international visitors have been able to freely enter the country since the beginning of the pandemic, and New Zealand shut its borders on 19 March 2020.
"We have received guidance that it is safe to commence with the next step of opening our borders: welcoming back our tourists," said the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, this morning.
"We look forward to welcoming tourists and extending our manaakitanga once more."
This announcement brings the planned border opening forward by four months.
In February the Prime Minister unveiled a timeline for "reconnecting to the world", with visa waiver countries being granted entry no later than July and visitors from the rest of the world being welcomed from October.
Now, the surge of Omicron and Covid-19 becoming endemic in the population has changed calculations.
While coronavirus cases continue to rise in New Zealand and the peak of the Omicron wave is still anticipated, Ardern said that this opening date was final.
"This is the opening," she said "I'm asking our Australian friends and family to book their tickets."
As soon as next month visitors from Australia will be able to enter the country, for the first time since the Transtasman Bubble.
The timing for mid-April is expected to give a welcome boost to travel across the Ditch with friends and family expected to be first to take up travel. It also arrives just in time for planning winter holiday travel, which was so important prior to the pandemic.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's February timetable for reopening has been sped up by Covid. Photo / Getty Images
It's exciting news not only for travellers and international visitors, but also for New Zealand's tourism industry which had been
Prior to the pandemic, tourism was New Zealand's biggest export industry, according to Tourism Industry Aotearoa, representing a fifth of the country's export dollars.
TIA communications manager Ann-Marie Johnson told RNZ she hoped to welcome Australians back for the April school holidays which fell over Easter and the upcoming ski season.
She told AM this morning, it would be the beginning of a rebuild even if it was only a "trickle at the start".
The return of international travellers will also help a return of international travel for New Zealanders. While New Zealanders can already return from overseas, quarantine free, air links remain extremely limited compared to prior to the pandemic.
The opening of borders could see more flights and options open for travel.
This depends on the demand for travel to Aotearoa and the speed of the recovery.
Air New Zealand's chief executive Greg Foran said the airline was adding 90 flights over the Easter period in anticipation of high initial demand.
"Pre-COVID-19, Australia was the largest tourism market for both our airline and New Zealand," he said. "We know a lot of tourism operators have been missing international visitors so we're looking forward to playing our role in New Zealand's recovery."
Rebuilding the tourism bridge
The announcement has been the moment Tourism New Zealand has been waiting for, to return to welcoming leisure visitors to Aotearoa.
TNZ chief executive René de Monchy says that a mix of domestic and international tourism have a vital role to play in supporting the country's recovery.
It is poised to launch a new global campaign to let the world know we are open for business. However domestic tourism would continue to be a focus and "keeping New Zealand alive" as a prospect for overseas visitors. It will be a long rebuild.
"If we thought it was competitive before, our challenge now alongside the Regional Tourism Organisations and industry is to remain desirable as borders around the world reopen and every country competes for people who are keen to travel post Covid," he said.
'Stop dreaming about New Zealand and go': TNZ says it will be rolling out a global campaign to invite travellers back to Aotearoa. Photo / Supplied
TNZ hopes to see bookings from July onwards off the back of the new campaign and work with National Geographic in the US and UK and promotion of winter holidays in Australia.
Overseas TNZ has been partnership with National Geographic to put Aotearoa on the radar in the US and UK, and winter holidays to Australia.
Who can come?
From April 14 international tourists from Australia will be able to enter New Zealand, without quarantine and without an exemption.
Providing they have proof of a recent negative Covid test result from pre-departure and proof of vaccination.
Vaccination proof can be a digital vaccine certificate or another form of electronic or paper document from a government health authority, providing it shows the name of the traveller, as well as the type and date of vaccines received.
Overseas visitors from outside Australia will need to apply for an NZeTA in order to travel.
All travellers will have to complete a New Zealand Travel Declaration 48 hours before travel.
What is a visa waiver country?
Visitors from visa waiver countries can return from 1 May.
From this date New Zealand will be open to all visitors from Australia and tourists from countries who do not need a visa (visa waiver visitors).
Tourists from other countries who already hold a valid visitor visa or Accredited Employer Work Visa categories will also be able to return.
All other visitors will be able to return at a later date. Currently this date is set for October, although this date "may still be brought forward" said the PM.
