5th June 2020 By Staff Reporter | news@tourismticker.com | @tourismticker
A plan for the resumption of safe trans-Tasman travel has been put before the New Zealand and Australian prime ministers.
The blueprint, developed by the Trans-Tasman Safe Border Group, recommends “multiple layers of protection to be embedded across the passenger journey”.
“This has been a significant piece of work involving experts from all parts of the system,” Scott Tasker, co-chair of the border group and Auckland Airport’s general manager aeronautical commercial, said.
Scott Tasker
“We’ve worked solidly together over the past three weeks to develop a detailed and comprehensive framework to enable the safe and sustainable re-start of scheduled passenger services between Australia and New Zealand, and we’re delighted to have submitted our proposal to government.
“We believe our recommendations will effectively manage the risks but importantly they will also provide confidence to Australian and New Zealand travellers to visit each other’s countries to reconnect with family and friends, re-establish vital business links, and provide a lifeline of visitors to our respective tourism industries.”
In a statement this morning, the border group recommended the establishment of a “safe travel zone” to be introduced in line with “strong baseline health conditions in each country for the management of Covid-19”.
That included “several layers of protections across the traveller journey, allowing for the sustainable re-start of scheduled passenger services without the need for a 14-day passenger quarantine”. The border group did not detail exactly what those measures should be.
Margy Osmond, co-chair of the border group and chief executive of Australia’s Tourism & Transport Forum, said: “It is now for our respective governments to review and work through the detail of the proposal and we are looking forward to supporting them further in re-establishing travel between the two countries.”
She added the protections would ensure passengers felt safe throughout their journey, “from the point at which they were considering and booking a flight across the Tasman, to moving through airports, the flight itself and arriving at their destination”.
Prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, Australia and New Zealand visitors spent an estimated $3bn each way every year.
New Zealand was the most popular outbound travel destination for Australians with 1.5 million visitors arriving from across the Tasman in 2019, accounting for 40% of all foreign visitors to New Zealand.
Likewise, Australia was the most popular outbound travel destination for Kiwis, who are the second-largest source market of visitors to that country – behind China – with 1.4 million visitors last year, accounting for around 15% of total visitors.
The Trans-Tasman Safe Border Group, co-ordinated by the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum, comprises of:
