New Zealand Tourism Minister says industry 'shouldn't expect more Government support'

New Zealand Tourism Minister Stuart Nash has shared a bleak message for the tourism industry across the country suggesting that it cannot expect ongoing Government support to help it cope with the downturn in visitors.

With the nation’s borders still closed to international visitors and New Zealanders being encouraged to get out and see their country, Minister Nash advised this week that businesses who rely on foreign tourists may need to have “very hard conversations with your bank, your creditors, your directors and your employees.”

Speaking on The AM Show, Minister Nash had sympathy for “tourism businesses bleeding all over the country” but advised that businesses “shouldn't expect more Government support” unless there is a change in alert levels.

With the tourism industry still struggling to fill the $6 billion drop in expenditure by international tourists, Minister Nash said businesses need to accept “the cold, hard reality” that New Zealand will probably not welcome back international tourists until 2022.

He went on to advise “if you’ve got a business that is solely or predominantly reliant on overseas tourists and you haven’t been able to pivot from an international base to a domestic base, then I’m afraid you’re probably going to have to have some very hard conversations.”

With New Zealand’s Tourism Export Council warning businesses will fail without more Government support, Minister Nash went on to advise “we’re working very hard on an Australian bubble. That will alleviate it if we can get that across the line, but I see there’s another outbreak in Victoria today.

“The reason we have been able to keep the vast majority of New Zealand businesses safe and people safe is we have taken this very strong health approach. But that does mean that borders have remained closed and there are no international tourists in this country.”

Asked whether the New Zealand Government was looking at a package for struggling tourism businesses, Minister Nash said he was still discussing the issue with Finance Minister Grant Robertson, but “nothing is certain … we haven’t got a bottomless pit of money as you can appreciate.”

Commenting that consideration is being given to potential support for tourism businesses, he suggested that it may not be worth propping up businesses which will ultimately prove inviable.

Minister Nash (pictured) added “I mean it’s February now and we’re probably not going to see international tourists in this country in 2021, and that’s probably the shortest period of time. So if you’ve got another 11 months to hold out, how much money, how much taxpayers’ money do we use to subsidise or prop up businesses that are probably not going to be viable for at least another 11 months?”

In May 2020, the New Zealand Government announced a $400 million package to help tourism businesses recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside a domestic tourism campaign and extension of the Wage Subsidy Scheme.

The package was designed to protect key tourism attractions and amenities, and help businesses pivot toward the domestic and Australian markets, hibernate or consider other options.

Amended: 16th February 20201 to change the title from saying 'New Zealand Tourism Minister says industry will "never return" to how it was'.