7. Question No. 7—TourismHon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua) to the Minister of TourismQuestion No. 7—Tourism7. Hon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua) to the Minister of Tourism: Does he stand by all his comments to the tourism sector in relation to international visitors and the closed border?Hon STUART NASH (Minister of Tourism): Yes.Hon Todd McClay: When he said that if tourism businesses—and I quote—haven't been able to pivot from an international base to domestic base then I'm afraid you're probably going to have to have some very hard conversations with your bank your creditors your directors your employees" was he suggesting that he expects these businesses to take on more debt or to close and that the Government has given up on them?Hon STUART NASH: What I was suggesting was that under the COVID environment that we find ourselves in apart from an Australian bubble which the Government is working very hard on we are unlikely to see international tourists in New Zealand this calendar year.Hon Todd McClay: Why is he telling tourism business owners who have borrowed against their homes and poured their life savings into keeping their operations afloat over the past year to talk to their bank managers accountants or to close?Hon STUART NASH: Because that's the reality of the situation that many tourism businesses find themselves in. I want to reiterate: apart from an Australian bubble that this Government is working very hard to enable the likelihood of seeing tourists from overseas on our motorways this year is highly unlikely and if a business operator has a business that is highly or fully dependent on overseas visitors then there are some very difficult decisions that they will have to make.Hon Todd McClay: When he said publicly that the cold hard reality was that New Zealand will probably not welcome back international tourists until 2022 what official advice was this based on and why has that said to the tourism sector that he's given up on the trans-Tasman bubble?Hon STUART NASH: I think the last thing this Government has done is given up on the tourism sector. We launched a package of over $400 million. Obviously we've had the wage subsidy the Small Business Cashflow (Loan) Scheme. Now there's a resurgence payment. There was the stat payment. We have provided a lot of assistance to the tourism industry but I would like to reiterate that the cold hard reality of the situation we find ourselves in as a country is that we are very unlikely to see international tourists apart from Australians in our country this calendar year.Hon Todd McClay: In telling tourism businesses to adjust to the domestic market is he aware that domestic tourism would need to increase by 72 percent just to replace the loss in international visitors and that it's hard to run a small tourism business on school holidays and the odd long weekend?Hon STUART NASH: I would never tell any business owner what they should do. What I was advising business owners in the tourism sector of is the fact that we are very unlikely to see international tourists in our country this calendar year apart from the Australian bubble which we're working closely on and therefore that is something that they will have to take into consideration when they are planning for this year.Maureen Pugh: Will the Minister give relief to townships in the Glacier Country Haast and Te Ānau where visitor numbers have reduced by up to 95 percent and if not why not?Hon STUART NASH: We have given relief to a number of businesses up and down this country. I have great sympathy for businesses who are reliant on overseas international visitors and I understand the plight and I have great sympathy for the plight of those at Franz and Fox. What I will say is that we are having ongoing discussions around what some sort of package may look like. Nothing has been decided. But the thing that I will reiterate apart from what I've just said is that the Government has always been very clear that we cannot save—this is the cold hard reality—every single business."