Wellington / Sydney: New Zealand on Thursday announced the reopening of his border which was mostly closed for two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the travel agency said the rules of self isolation need to be removed to revive the struggling tourism sector.
New Zealand vaccination in Australia can travel home from February 27 without the requirement to stay at the state-run quarantine facility, while New Zealand residents around the world will be able to do it two weeks later, said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Backpacker foreign vaccination and some skilled workers can come to the country starting March 13, while up to 5,000 international students will be allowed to enter from April 12.
Tourists from Australia and other visa-free countries will only be permitted in July and tourists from the rest of the world will be kept until October under plans.
All tourists still have to have their own isolation for 10 days, Ardern said.
The opening of the border in a managed way will enable people to reunite and help fill the lack of labor while ensuring the health care system can manage the expected increase in cases, Ardern said.
“Our strategy with Omicron is slowing down the spread, and our borders are part of it,” he told business audiences in Auckland.
Very transmitted virus variants currently dominant throughout the world have recently been detected in New Zealand, and case numbers slowly increase.
New Zealand Fortress New Zealand has had some of the toughest border control in the world for the past two years, because the government tried to expel Korenavirus.
Foreigners are prohibited from entering, and residents who want to return must make emergency requests to the government or secure a place in the state quarantine facility, called Miq, through a website.
The critics have called the system unfair.
The National Opposition Party leader Christopher Luxon described Miq as a “human misery lottery”.
The policy helps maintain infection and low death.
A country of five million people, New Zealand has had around 17,000 cases of Covid-19 which was confirmed so far and only 53 deaths.
But it also left tens of thousands of New Zealand’s foreigners cut off from family at home, causing work losses for residents and have devastated for businesses that depend on international tourists.
Pregnant journalists who were trapped in Afghanistan highlighted this problem with difficult border control last week.
Since then he has been given a place in MIQ and plans to return in March.
The travel sector and tourism slammed the rules of self isolation, saying that it prevents meaningful recovery in what is the main producer of the foreign country to date.
“People don’t want to fly to New Zealand if they have to spend the first week they sit in a hotel,” said Chief Executive Executive of New Zealand Airport Kevin Ward.
He said the analysis by Auckland Airport showed demand from Australia’s visitor markets estimated at only 7% of the 2019 level if the self isolation requirements remained.
A spokesman for the Australian Travel Agency flight center said the isolation requirements would be the “dealbreaker” for most potential travelers.
The New Zealand CEO’s Tourism Executive Board Lynda Keene said the rules of self isolation were “complete hand brakes that would make New Zealand disconnected from the world, not re-connected.” Ardern said the government would review self isolation requirements.
“This will be a re-opening that is far more meaningful for tourists if they can enter with lower independent isolation,” he told reporters.