Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Mat Woods: Destination Queenstown and Lake Wānaka Tourism CEO on National's passport-free trans-Tasman travel policy

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Mat Woods: Destination Queenstown and Lake Wānaka Tourism CEO on National's passport-free trans-Tasman travel policy · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Should we be charging the Aussies for the privilege of
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: visiting New Zealand? National is promising passport-free travel across the Tasman,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: but our cousins over there aren't paying the international visitor
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: levy on arrival because of our economic deal with them,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: despite the fact that they're our largest inbound market for tourism.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Half of our tourists are Australian. Matt Woods joins me,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: CEO Destination Queenstown and Lake Wanaka Tourism.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Matt. Good morning. How are you? Good.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Hey, just quickly on the National Party promise of passport-free travel.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: So you basically do it on your phone... And is
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: it only for New Zealanders and Australians, or would it
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: apply to foreigners who were in Australia wanting to come
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: here too?
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: My understanding is it'll be for New Zealand and Australians only.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: So it's really just replacing the passports that Kiwis and
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Aussies would use to go trans-Tasman. Gotcha.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Now, what about the visitor levy? Do you think the Aussies,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: we should force them.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: To pay it? Yeah, look, I don't think we can
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: force them to pay it, but we're cutting ourselves short,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: aren't we? So at the moment, we do collect $ 100
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: in the international visitor levy, known as the IVL, at
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: the border for all international visitors coming in, excluding Australia.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: And so if Australia is sort of half of our
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: international visitors, we are cutting ourselves a bit short. So
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: I think we need to find a way that we
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: can actually recoup some of this money that we need
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: to actually support conservation and tourism within New Zealand.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a hell of a lot of money. In fact,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: half of the money to do with tourism that we're
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: missing out on. How would you do it, though? What
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: is a tricky way we could get around it?
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I think it is a tricky thing to
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: get around. But look, if you think about what we're
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: using it for, it's for conservation, so access to our
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: national parks. Is it actually a national parks fee that
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: you charge at the border? That could be maybe a
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: simple mechanism. But, you know, if we actually look at this...
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: this announcement yesterday, we really encourage this. This is a
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: great thing for both Kiwis and Aussies that want to
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: get across the ditch. And, you know, if you think
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: about as a Kiwi and you might want to just
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: go across to Aussie to go watch a sporting match
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: or catch up with some friends and family or just
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: do business, how easy is that to do without a passport?
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: And vice versa, if we want to encourage more Australians
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: to come to New Zealand, how easy is that for
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: them just to pop over the ditch as well? You know,
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: I think there's lots of great reasons to actually get
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: rid of these passports. And particularly for us in Queenstown,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: where we have a really busy Trans-Tasman Airport already, you know,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: one less barrier is a great thing for us.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I guess that is the real benefit, because
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: it's not exactly a game changer. Like, nobody's going to
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: suddenly book a flight because of it. But once you
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: get to the airport, it should be a bit quicker.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I think there's a few people where actually
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: a passport is a barrier. Once you've got a passport,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: it's a little bit easier because you can renew it.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: There is a cost and an expense to doing that,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: but there is definitely a group of people out there
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: that don't even have a passport and they haven't even
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: considered it. So if you can make a Trans-Tasman flight
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: much more like a domestic flight and it's easy to do,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: it's just one less barrier. That actually does open up
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: the market to more people from New Zealand going to
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Aussie and Aussie coming to New Zealand.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: All right, Matt, good to have you on the show
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: this morning. Matt Wood, CEO Destination Queenstown and Lake Wanaka Tourism.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:06
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• 3:09
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