As South Australia joins Victoria and NSW on a quarantine-free travel pause, our local tourism operators worry: Where the bloody hell are ya, Aussie? The New Zealand school holidays spike is not enough.
Kiwis are hitting the popular travel spots that are usually flooded with tourists over the school holiday break, as the Trans-Tasman bubble pause is pouring more and more cold water over families’ overseas travel plans.
Earlier this month Air NZ said a record of more than 670,000 Kiwis were travelling around Aotearoa over the holiday break.
Rotorua Canopy Tours general manager Paul Button says his business has seen a huge spike in demand because of the school holidays.
“We’re about three times busier than before the school holidays but 30 percent below last year because Kiwis went crazy coming out of lockdown last July,” Button says.
The travel pauses with Australia are nothing to celebrate, though. The Government has now put a pause on quarantine-free travel from South Australia. With 18 active Covid cases, South Australia joins Victoria and New South Wales on a pause.
If the Trans-Tasman bubble hadn’t popped, demand from Australian travellers would have made Paul Button's tour company busier than last year, he reckons.
Pre-Covid, international tourists made up 60 percent of Rotorua Canopy Tours business, with Australians alone making up 40 percent of that.
"If you're operating a business in this environment you just can't relax. And this Trans Tasman bubble is a great example of that – it was looking good, and now it's not. But then again, the pause is better than being in a lockdown here."
The company has been doing up to 18 tours a day over the past week and half, more than double compared to before the school holidays.
According to figures from holiday home management company Bachcare, Kiwis are hitting the ski slopes in droves.
Holiday homes in Queenstown and Wanaka have reached 90 percent capacity and Arrowtown is at 88 percent.
Justin Worth operates ski hire and delivery company Snopro in Wanaka and Queenstown.
"If you're operating a business in this environment you just can't relax. And this Trans Tasman bubble is a great example of that – it was looking good, and now it's not." – Paul Button, Rotorua Canopy Tours
Worth says business has been doing better than before Covid in Wanaka, but Queenstown, which has been heavily reliant on the international market, both for tourists and transient labour, has been hit hard by the Trans Tasman travel bubble pauses.
"A lot of us were geared up for the Trans Tasman bubble, but it's kind of deflated," Worth says.
But the silver lining for Queenstown is that the bubble pause has eased the burden on businesses struggling to find labour.
“Had the Trans Tasman bubble been ‘all go’ many businesses may have struggled to uphold service levels. No business wants to overpromise and underdeliver. That may have been a real concern had the bubble been operating.”
He says hotels in the town have reduced room capacity, and some restaurants are limiting table bookings.
Wanaka, though, is a different story.
Worth is working 15 hour days over the school holidays to keep up with demand.
“Queenstown has more of the luxury feel, but Wanaka has always been the locals' favourite. It’s got your ma-and-pa run motels and holiday homes, and families can have flexibility to cook at home and live the bach experience.”
Booking.com New Zealand area manager Todd Lacey says outside of the school holiday period, the online travel agency was seeing a steady increase in domestic travel bookings, particularly for couples and solo travellers, as most families were holding off for the two week break.
“We're seeing a lot of staycations. People are splashing out on the premium suites at hotels in their own cities for special occasions. For some people just getting out of their home and normal routine is a really nice thing to do," Lacey says.
He says Booking.com saw more plans being postponed than cancelled.
“Typically we see Kiwis going to warmer destinations this time of year like Bali. So we did see a lot of demand for the Gold Coast, but people are modifying their trips because of the travel bubble pause. We're seeing people making alternative trips. Deciding to book within New Zealand rather than cancelling plans,” Lacey says.
“People are quite committed to doing something.”
Meanwhile in Taupo, Garth Oakden, general manager of Tongariro River Rafting, says even though bookings for him this holiday break are 30 percent down on 2019, he's not too worried about the future without the travel bubble
Oakden has been keeping busy hosting schools around the country, throughout the year for camping trips.
He says his business is “ticking along” during the bubble pause and plans to “go with the flow” rather than making any drastic changes.
"There's no point sitting there thinking it would be so good to have the Aussies here, because they're not. So you've just got to do what you're doing.
"You've got to treat it like a day out fishing. You know what you'd like it to be, but you've just got to appreciate what you've got along the way.”
