While today’s announcement means the bitter plight of internationally stranded Kiwis will finally end, the billions of dollars lost in export earnings and GDP from the absence of tourists and slow return of visa-based workers will continue indefinitely, according to Hospitality New Zealand.
Hospitality NZ CEO Julie White noted that the requirement of self-isolation and some MIQ means there will be no tourists until 2023 at the earliest, and the desperate labour shortage will continue as the world will be slow to take up work visas here.
“It’s a bitter-sweet announcement; the emotional trauma of Kiwis stuck abroad ends, but the economic trauma will continue into 2023 and 2024,” she said.
Hospitality staff will be among those New Zealanders now able to return, and long divided families of hospitality workers will reunite. But, White pointed out, today’s announcement also means that tourists, essential to hospitality and many other sectors, are still at least a year from coming. Despite opening to work visas, the pace of uptake is far from certain.
“New Zealand is mostly closed for the rest of the year – or half-closed at best. The ten days isolation rule will stop almost any tourist visiting. We will miss the big tourism season and that could embed a pattern for years more of tourists going elsewhere.
“We might have more workers and Kiwi customers later this year, but right now many of our members aren’t even sure they’ll make it through summer,” continued White, adding that the staged opening does little to assist the ‘cautious’ principle, as Omicron is already here and will arrive with returning New Zealanders.
“The nation is vaccinated and boosted. What is the point of an isolation period longer than the international standard, and what is the difference between the influx of tens of thousands of returning Kiwis, and tens of thousands of tourists?”
The Restaurant Association has agreed, with CEO Marisa Bidois noting that staged approach to reopening presents more challenges for the hospitality industry.
“Whilst it’s a relief to see the borders finally reopening, our industry desperately needs skilled workers and the restrictions at stage 1 and 2 appear to signal a block on us accessing the skills to help our sector recover.
“It appears that the Government is using the border closures and the reopening approach to serve a wider strategy which ultimately blocks industries like ours from accessing the workforce we need.
“Price increases in our industry are already happening as a result of supply chain issues but there really is only so many price increases the NZ consumer can sustain so raising salaries to the levels needed to be able to meet the immigration criteria is in fact, not sustainable. All of these extra costs coming on top of a long period of business closures and reduced revenues.
“We see the isolation periods being a deterrent to visitors so question how many visitors we will see back in New Zealand so while it is encouraging to see the plan, we do not see this being the end of the challenges our sector will face over the next 12 months.”
