Is the Australia New Zealand travel bubble a viable solution?

Summary

• Australia and New Zealand, both the nations would benefit from the travel bubble. With the recent announcement on the same, NZ’s PM Jacinda Ardern raised expectations to reopen borders for Aussies.
• With about half of New Zealand's foreign visitors consisting of Australians, they were NZ’s largest international target audience before coronavirus outbreak.
• Lately, Tourism New Zealand has been launching innovative campaigns to appeal and engage enthusiastic Australian consumers.

Australia is New Zealand's largest target market, and as per July 2020’s update, Australians contribute ~1.5 million tourists’ arrival, which is 40 per cent of New Zealand's total arrivals on yearly basis. Moreover, the Australians had spent NZ$2.7 billion in total market contribution, last year.

After the global outbreak and coronavirus spread by March 2020, New Zealand closed its borders for foreign visitors, which had an adverse impact on its travel and tourism sector.

Since then, New Zealand and Australia have made progress in combating the virus spread. Both the countries are in talks of resuming the travel bubble for a few months, but because of the resurfacing of COVID-19 cases in Melbourne, Australia, the travel bubble plan was derailed.

Now after five months of discussion, PM Jacinda Ardern announced on 26 September that a travel bubble with Australia is ‘possible’ by the end of this year. Australia and New Zealand can control the further spread of the virus; the plan has enabled the two nations to consider reopening of its borders and create a safer travel zone.

Must Read: ‘SWOT Analysis’ of NZ Travel Industry Reeling from COVID-19 Crisis

Australian visitors and their NZ activities’ snapshot are as follows-

New Zealand and Australia’s travel bubble:

In 2019, 1.5 million Australians visited the Kiwi Land, out of which 42 per cent visited NZ with the intent of holidaying, and 40 per cent came to visit their friends or relatives. Before COVID-19 led cancellation of travel plans, Australians were New Zealand's largest international target audience.

Both the countries share proximity and cherish strong relationships, making New Zealand, a sought-after destination to be visited by the Australian citizens. Also, from the perspective of New Zealand's economic recovery, Australia is an important and critical market.

The strict border control helped New Zealand take charge of the COVID-19 spread, which in turn severely impacted its travel and tourism sector. NZ is Currently trying to revive its multi-billion-dollar travel sector.

Overall, travel and tourism sector is one of New Zealand's vital sectors to generate revenue. According to Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA), the total yearly tourism spending was between NZ$40.9 billion to NZ$112 million every day before COVID-19 pandemic crushed the growing industry.

Good read: Is the travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand likely to go ahead?

How is New Zealand attracting Australian visitors?

The tourism industry is expanding its horizons to enrich the experience of each visitor in the country. TNZ is planning a long-term strategy to ensure growth remains productive, sustainable, and inclusive.

Even though the country is not able to welcome visitors right now, it is still giving importance to create anticipation and desire towards visiting New Zealand. TNZ has planned a series of activities for the future, gauging the Australian consumer demand.

As a part of the strategised activity by NZ, earlier this year, Tourism NZ launched a new campaign known as ‘100% Pure New Zealand’. Currently, A Journey of Reflection has been made live and fresh campaign work is being carried on with the purpose of attracting the Australian clients.

A string of webinars would be held for the NZ tourism industry related to their businesses to comprehend and draw an Australian visitor. Most importantly, TNZ is pursuing travel sentiment of Australian visitors, who have New Zealand as their chosen destination.

Good Read: Three Key Trends Defining Travel Sector’s Recovery from COVID-19 Storm

How is New Zealand’s Tourism industry responding to COVID-19?

Amid COVID-19 virus spreading like wildfire, a huge number of Australians prefer New Zealand as a holiday destination.

A recent study conducted by Tourism NZ revealed the impacts of the pandemic on intentions to travel to NZ among Australian visitors. As per the study, sixty-seven per cent of online target audience, with the age between 18 to 74 find New Zealand, an attractive holiday destination.

Further, seventy-two per cent of Australian natives had no concern on visiting NZ amid the pandemic. These numbers project a strong inclination among the Australians to visit New Zealand, as soon as border and travel restrictions are lifted up.

To meet the growing demand from travel enthusiasts, the tourism industry of NZ is adapting the challenges presented by COVID-19. The sector is focusing on webinars providing current updates related to the pandemic situation within the country. The members would be enabled to raise their queries related to travel as well.

The Road Ahead

The possibility of the NZ-Australia travel bubble has already created a positive outlook in the current unstable industry. The implementation of Trans-Tasman travel bubble is also on the cards for New Zealand, which will enable it to open its travel corridors for other countries.

Australia had no say in New Zealand's decision to open its door to the Aussies, thus, the recent announcement from the New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has raised the hopes of both the Australians and the travel industry in New Zealand.

Interesting Read: Five-Point Action Plan to Survive COVID-19 Storm