Vaccinated Australians can travel to New Zealand without having to quarantine from 11.59pm on April 12 in a boon to the country’s tourism sector.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expects foreign visitor levels to be below 2019 levels initially and cautions they will take time to rebuild.
Foreign travellers will still need to undergo a supervised rapid antigen or PCR test for COVID-19 before travelling to New Zealand. They will also need to take two RATs within their first six days in the country.
“An earlier reopening for tourism and the travel that brings also increases capacity for exports, helping to lower freight rates and the flow and cost of goods that stems from that,” Ardern told reporters.
“A critical element is also to reunite visitors with our regional economies to welcome back our tourists and extend our Manaakitanga once more.”
Tourism New Zealand is launching a new campaign to lure Australian travellers, who made up 40 per cent of foreign visitors pre-COVID.
The country will also open to people from visa-waiver countries including the US, UK, Germany, Italy, Japan and Singapore.
“Travel here for many is a big deal. And so we are now well-placed by announcing from the first of May to grab people’s attention and grab them in our summer, by which time we expect that our industry will have been able to build up that capability,” Ardern said.
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