Major tourism operators in the Waikato are calling on central government to open the border with Australia as soon as possible.

Waikato is home to some of the country’s top tourist attractions, but when the country closed to international tourists almost a year ago, many were left struggling to keep their heads above water.

Hotspots like Waitomo Caves, the Hobbiton Movie Set and towns like Taupō and Ruapehu are calling for the trans-Tasman bubble between Australia and New Zealand to be opened up pronto.

Taupō Mayor David Trewavas said he was keen to see any trans-Tasman bubble brought on asap.

“Please, we’re desperate.”

Tourism New Zealand estimates a trans-Tasman bubble with Australia would allow tourism revenue to recover quickly to 70 per cent of pre-Covid levels.

And it appears sorely needed.

According to the latest Hamilton and Waikato Tourism six-month report December 2020, the region’s main tourist districts are down over a third in visitor spend.

While the Waikato was down eight per cent overall, Waitomo and Matamata-Piako District suffered at a 38 per cent and 24 per cent drop in visitor spend respectively.

Pre Covid-19, one in six international visitors planned to experience Waitomo Caves and the Hobbiton Movie Set while touring the country.

They made up 80 per cent of Waitomo Caves market with over 500,000 tourists stepping through its door.

It pumps around $87m into the district annually.

Tourism Holdings CEO Grant Webster said a trans-Tasman bubble would be powerful in every sense and bring back a lot of energy to an area that's “clearly been struggling”.

“It would give us an opportunity to re-employ more people and to revitalise the local economy.

“It’s really quite desperately needed... we're passing the one-year mark now and as a company, we're still losing a lot of money.

“We're desperate to employ people and keep them in full-time jobs, rather than part-time jobs.”

Domestically, people have supported Waitomo Caves more than they have historically, but “we're still 70 to 80 per cent down on prior years.”

Webster prefers an open discussion between tourism companies and central Government.

In the first half of 2020, the district only reached $60m – a 28.3 per cent fall – and around $18m of that came from international visitors.

Most recently, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he would be happy for the borders to open as soon as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gave the go-ahead.

Hobbiton's deputy chief executive Shayne Forrest couldn’t wait for the trans-Tasman bubble to open, but was happy to wait until it was safe to do so.

“The opportunity of having our Australian friends back is very exciting... and when it’s safe to do so if we can do it as soon as possible that would be fantastic.

“It needs to be about keeping New Zealander's safe.”

Australians account for 20 per cent of Hobbiton’s overall numbers, “so it’s our biggest single source market offshore,” Forrest said.

Hobbiton injects over $70m into the Matamata-Piako District through around 650,000 visitors each year.

“We’ve had a really positive summer season… it was better than expected, still not back to the pre-Covid numbers, but we had great support from Kiwis.”

When the borders open, Forrest was hopeful Australians would help fill up weekday bookings.

Until then, he was eager for a trans-Tasman timeline allowing Hobbiton to plan ahead.

Further south, Taupō and its tourist operators in particular would be rolling out the red carpet and believed central government knew of its importance, Trewavas said.

“I’m sure they're working on it because there’s a lot of GST revenue that comes with it to cover some of these big costs we’re all incurring.”

The continued closure of international borders was impacting total visitor spend to the region over the traditional peak season, said Jane Wilson, general manager, Destination Lake Taupō.

Spending from Australian visitors prior to Covid-19 had been up 10 per cent to $50 million for the year ending June 2019.

They were the area’s number one international source market, accounting for over a quarter of the region’s international expenditure with more than 50 per cent of that occurring between November and March.

International visitors contributed almost $140 million to the Taupō district over Nov 2019-March 2020, said Wilson, and domestic tourism, while up this year, would not be enough to offset this loss. This year’s January-March figures were not yet available, but she was expecting total visitor spend to be down approximately 10 per cent on the same period last year.

A bubble for many operators would be a lifesaver, she said, as the district moved into the traditionally slower autumn and winter periods.

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts chief executive Jono Dean said trans-Tasman visitors accounted for about 15 per cent of the company’s business but was key to the wider market.

“I think more importantly what the Australian market means is book ended week-long adventures around the country which drives visitation through the midweek days, which are absolutely critical to sustainability around the North Island.”

While the best efforts of locals had been deeply appreciated by operators – the domestic market could not fully provide for the struggling visitor industry, he said.

“The quote is you can’t run a business on two days a week of demand.”

As well as customers, Dean said RAL needed decisiveness from the government in allowing technically skilled people into the country – those who flew south for another winter during the Northern Hemisphere off season.

“Last year alone Ruapehu was about 50 per cent of the payroll it would normally carry through an operating season and a lot of that came from reduction in ski instructors, ski patrollers, people out there keeping us safe on the mountain, groomer drivers, real technical expertise that ski resorts unfortunately can’t find locally...”

“I think we have seen some really strong leadership in terms of where we have got to now with the ‘go hard and go early’ message and the stimulus and support that’s gone into the economy, but the economy doesn’t need a hand out any longer it needs a hand up. It needs the support to say yep, we see safe passage, and we want to get the international visitors back into New Zealand…

“And it may as well start with the second most safe country in the world which is Australia.”

He likened regional economies to being on a knife-edge.

“They don’t have manufacturing industries that can support or provide additional value into those economies – we are very heavily reliant on tourism and that’s what we’re screaming out for at the moment.”

Dean accepted continued vigilance and the control of occasional Covid-19 flare-ups was the nature of the future but now was “not the time for the government to falter.”

“The next hurdle is let’s get these borders back open, so we can again start to commence the recovery – it’s not a sustainable recovery domestically in terms of tourism.”

Before the pandemic, Australia was New Zealand's number one international visitor market contributing $87.5 million into the Waikato economy.

According to Jason Dawson, chief executive of Hamilton and Waikato Tourism it’s estimated that 42 per cent of New Zealand’s visitor economy comes from international tourism.

From mid-2020, domestic visitors spent $685m and international visitors $62m.

Domestic travellers spend on average $155 per day and, while international visitors spend around $232 per day.

“Tourism remains vital to the region’s post-Covid recovery,” Dawson said, “with every $178,000 of tourism spend, which equates to 40 international visitors or 480 domestic overnight trips, creating a job.”

Credit: Stuff.co.nz