Under the new timeline, tourists from Australia will be able to visit from April 12 and tourists from other visa-waiver countries can visit from May 1. Tourists from non-waiver countries — including India and China — will need to wait longer, unless they already have valid visitor visas.
Tourists must be vaccinated and test negative for the virus before leaving their home country and again after arriving in New Zealand.
“I know from visiting tourism operators, and talking to their staff, how tough these past two years have been,” Ardern said. “And not only because of the massive loss of tourism revenue, but because we lost something we derived so much of our identity from.”
New Zealand is renowned for its beautiful scenery and adrenalin-inducing adventure tourism. The announcement comes as a timely boost to ski fields trying to plan for the upcoming Southern Hemisphere winter.
“Tourism operators finally have confirmation they can get back to business,” said Ann-Marie Johnson, a spokesperson for Tourism Industry Aotearoa. “Tourism was the first industry to be affected by the pandemic and will be the last to recover. Tourism operators both large and small have made huge sacrifices but can now focus on rebuilding their businesses.”
