The Australians are coming and the Government is injecting $49 million into the South Island’s battered tourism industry as it races to get ready for their arrival.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced borders will open to Australian tourists in a month, and to the rest of the world in six weeks - with no Covid-19 self-isolation requirements.
"In short, we’re ready to welcome the world back," Ms Ardern said.
From 11.59pm on April 12, vaccinated Australians can travel to New Zealand, while vaccinated visitors from visa-waiver countries, such as the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Canada, Japan and Singapore, and those with valid visitors’ visas, can arrive from 11.59pm on May 1.
The tourism industry in the South yesterday welcomed the announcement as the best news it had received in two hard years.
Tourism Minister Stuart Nash said eligible tourism businesses could apply for grants between $10,000 and $50,000 and could use the cash to refresh facilities, for marketing, to train and hire new staff or to source new stock in readiness for opening.
Operators in Fiordland, Queenstown, Wanaka, the Mackenzie district, Mt Cook, the glacier region of Westland and Kaikoura were eligible for the new support and applications would open on April 1.
Borders will reopen in time for the Australian school holidays and for New Zealand’s ski season, which Queenstown Mayor Jim Boult said could be "one of the best ski seasons ever" - assuming there was good snow.
"[This is] the best news Queenstown Lakes district’s had in an economic sense since Covid came ... the bottom line is, can’t wait to see the Aussies back, they are just so important to us," Mr Boult said.
Queenstown tourism operator Nigel Hobbs, who is managing director of Altitude Tours and Black ZQN, said businesses were "nowhere near" ready for an influx of tourists.
"We’re scrambling around starting [yesterday] actually, we’re trying to reconnect with staff that have left and seeing if they want to come back.
"We were already having meetings with other companies that rent vehicles that might be suitable for us to hire them over the busy period to be able to run tours.
"We’ve got a huge amount of work to get ready to reopen."
Despite the difficulties operators would face gearing up, the announcement would be a "huge weight off so many people’s shoulders".
"I know personally a number of businesses that were right on the verge, hanging on for just as long as they could," Mr Hobbs said.
Queenstown Airport chief executive Glen Sowry said the timing was great for airlines to now lock in their schedules for flights to Queenstown.
Like most firms, the airport would need to boost staffing.
"There’s a lot of work to be done, not so much for the airport company, but certainly for the ground handlers ... the customs team, MPI and the like, all need to get prepared but we’re confident they’re in good shape with that," Mr Sowry said.
It was not yet clear when the first transtasman flight would touch down in Queenstown, but Mr Sowry said he would be talking to airlines this week about how quickly they could bring forward their operations.
Queenstown Chamber of Commerce chief executive Ruth Stokes said the kick-start fund would be critical to rebuilding, and while some businesses could face issues with resourcing, she was confident they would rise to the challenge.
Several Queenstown accommodation providers said bookings had not started flooding in just yet, but they were hopeful they would soon.
Fiordland Community Board chairwoman Sarah Greaney welcomed the news and said getting the border open before winter was "make or break" for Te Anau and Fiordland businesses.
"Hopefully, they get here and start visiting quickly so we can return to some sort of normal."
Larnach Castle director Norcombe Barker believed it was a "good first step", but was concerned there might be a lack of demand from tourists.
Dunedin was usually quiet in winter so it would not be until cruise ships returned that there would start to be a recovery.
"It is still going be a very long time until we get back to where we were two or three years ago," he said.
